F ^91 
.U55 
Copy 1 






1865-12 




'Be -who ia ignorant of what happened before be 
was born, remains a child all his life.*' 






RECONSTRUCIl PERIOD 




1865-?2 




"He who is ignorant of what happened before he 
wus born, remains a child all his life.^' 



This pamplet is published in order to aid the school 

children who are to enter the U. D. C. 

historical contest. 



,'?• •, .. 

-i,-<. j^^ 



COMPILED BY 
BULLOCH COUNTY CHAPTER U. D. C. 

STATESBORO, GA. 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

(From "Georgia Land and People," by Frances Letcher Mitchell.) 

The war between the States had lasted a little more 
than four years. It was waged by the Confederates 
with the great object of maintaining the inestimable 
sovereign right of local self-government, while is was 
waged by the Federals, as they declared, with the sole 
object of "maintaining the Union under the Constitu- 
tion." 

When the Confederate armies surrendered, the mask 
hitherto worn by the War Party of the North was drop- 
ped, and they no longer cared to conceal that all their 
talk about "the Union" was false sentiment to delude 
the public. They determined that the South should not 
be members of the Federal Union on any terms of equal- 
ity, but should be held as conquered provinces. 

In this grave crisis Gov. Brown called a meeting of 
the Legislature, but the military who were now in con- 
trol in Georgia would not allow it to assemble. 

A few days afterwards an armed force, led by a Fed- 
eral Captain surrounded the Executive Mansion at 
night, and notified the Governor that he was to be ar- 
rested. He quietly showed his parole as commander- 
in-chief of the State forces, which he had received from 
the Federal General, Wilson. The Captain informed 
him that he was ordered to take that from him. The 
Governor indignantly protested against this outrage, as 
he had not violated his parole, and the faith of the 
United States Government was pledged to protect him. 
However, he could not resist an armed force, and in the 
end had to give it up. He was allowed only thirty min- 
utes to prepare for his departure, and was denied a 
moment in private with his afmily. He was taken to 
Washington City and put in Carrol prison, where he 
was detained a week and then released. 

During the war Gov. Brown had nobly done his duty, 
and had always maintained the honor of Georgia ; but 
when he returned home, acting as if not only the cause, 
but the principle, for which Georgia had been lost, he 
resigned the high office with which he had been intrust- 
ed for the fourth time, and advised all Georgians to ac- 
quiesce in the arbitrary measures of the Federal Gov- 
ernment. 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

The night, indeed, was black and fearful; a howling 
tempest raged, and the old Ship of State was lashed by 
the turbulent waves until it seemed that she must be 
swamped in the surfs at last. Some few Georgians, 
with Gov. Brown, took to the life-boats; but the great 
majority of our people stood by the old Ship, preferring 
to go down with her — if it needs must be — if she could 
not weather the storm. 

Gov. Brown's successor was appointed by the Federal 
Government, with the title of "Provisional Governor." 
So, for the first time since Georgia cased to be a colony 
of Great Britain, a Chief Magistrate not of her own 
choosing occupied the Executive Chair. Under the ar- 
bitrary rule of the military, a citizen could not carry on 
his ordinary occupation, could not vote, could not even 
get a letter out of the post-office without taking an oath 
of allegiance to a government from which they had suf- 
fered such gross wrongs. Moreover, this "iron-clad 
oath," as it was called, was not allowed to every one; 
something like twenty thousand Georgians, including 
many of the leading men of the State, were not permit- 
ted to take it. Georgia law was set aside, and there 
was no appeal from military authority. Robbery, mur- 
der and every kind of lawlessness ran riot over the State 
and every newspaper teemed with accounts of crime. 

This disorder and defiance of law was increased 
when the Federal Government established what was 
known as the Freedman's Bureau. It belonged to the 
War Department, controlled all subjects relating to the 
negroes, and managed, besides, what Congress was 
pleased to call "abandoned lands." In short, it was a 
government machine, and its agents exercised the pow- 
er of a Russian Autocrat. The Freedman's Bureau Act, 
and, later, the Civil Rights Act of Congress were both 
enforced in Georgia by the military. 

A Federal Brigadier-General ordered Gen. Toombs' 
wife, who was living quietly at home, in Washington, 
to vacate her house, as he intended to take possession 
of it as "abandoned property," and use it for the Freed- 
man's Bureau with which he was connected. Another 
Federal General revoked the order and allowed Mrs. 
Toombs to retain her property. In Athens, wagons 
were driven into a gentleman's lot and a thousand dol- 



FROM "GEORGIA LAND AND PEOPLE" 

lars' worth of railroad iron hauled off, for which no 
compensation could ever be obtained. Thus, in every 
county, property was placed at the caprice of military 
officers. 

Warrenton, in Warren county, was considered, dur- 
ing the war, a very safe place, and being at the same 
time quite accessible, a large quantity of cannon and 
ordnance, commissary and quartermaster's stores, were 
kept there. At the surrender they were destroyed or 
removed, and never fell into the hands of the Yankees, 
but the town was immediately garrisoned by Federal 
troops, who made themselves very objectionable to the 
citizens. In a spirit of retaliation, the young ladies of 
the place set their wits to work to torment them all they 
could. 

On one occasion the most popular girls gave a con- 
cert and invited all the Yankee officers, who felt much 
gratified by the compliment, as they well knew how 
they were hated by the people, but looked sorely crest- 
fallen when they found they had to listen to nothing 
but Confederate war songs and battle pieces. At last, 
when a pretty little sparkling brunette began to sing 
"The Conquered Banner," with a shadow upon her 
bright young face and a tender pathos in her voice, it 
was too much for the Yankees, and they left the hall 
in a body ; so when the last soft note quivered upon the 
air, they were all on the outside of the building, linger- 
ing around and peeping through the windows. After- 
wards they sent the young ladies word that they were 
going to arrest them. That was just fun for the girls, 
and they straightway devised some other way to annoy 
them. 

They went horseback riding with their horses' ears 
ornamented with tiny Confederate flags ; then, at night, 
they would throw wide open all the windows, sit down 
to their pianos and sing "Dixie," "The Bonny Blue 
Flag," and other war songs, until they were tired out. 

Their parents, at length, put a stop to this display of 
patriotism, fearing that the rough soldiers might say 
something rude to them. Still, the girls found ways to 
let "all the world" know that they gloried in not being 
"reconstructed." 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

The authority of the Federal government was accept- 
ed in Georgia from necessity, not from choice. Our 
people had been overcome by superior numbers and 
greater resources, but they had not been convinced that 
their course was wrong. 

In Savannah, the Federal general in command issued 
an order against any man appearing on the streets in a 
Confederate uniform. When it was represented to him 
that the returned soldiers had nothing else to put on, 
nor any money to buy another suit, he revoked the order 
with the proviso that the military buttons should be 
either cut off or covered. The next day "the boys in 
gray" appeared on the streets with every button wrap- 
ped in crepe. 

From the time that Oglethorpe planted his colony 
upon Yamacraw Bluff, Georgia had never passed thro* 
such an ordeal as the present. Nine-tenths of her sons 
were practically disfranchised because they had served 
the Southern Confederacy, and all the conditions of 
life were new; their servants were no longer subject to 
their control, and most of their property was scattered 
to the four winds of heaven. It tested the blood that 
had come down to them from Cavalier and Huguenot, 
from Scotch and Irish ancestry. The private life of 
many Georgians, for the first few years after the war, 
beggars description ; but the energy and patience of the 
men and the fortitude of the women rose to the occa- 
sion. 

**'The surrender found a gentle, shrinking Georgia 
woman on the Florida line nearly four hundred miles 
from her once luxurious home, from which she had fled 
in haste as Sherman 'marched to the sea.' The husband 
was with Gen. Lee in Virginia. The last tidings came 
from Petersburg — before Appomattox — and his fate 
was uncertain. 

"Hiring a dusky driver, with his old army mule and 
a wagon, she loaded the latter with the remnant of her 
goods and chattels that were left to her, and, placing 
her four children on top, this brave woman trudged the 
entire distance on foot, cheering, guiding and protect- 
ing the driver and her little ones in the tedious journey. 

*Mrs. W. H. Felton, in Atlanta Constitution. 



FROM "GEORGIA LAND AND PEOPLE" 

"Under an August sun, through sand and dust she 
plodded along, footsore and anxious, until she reached 
the dismantled home and restored her little stock of 
earthly goods under their former shelter. 

"When her soldier husband had walked from Vir- 
ginia to Georgia, he found besides his noble wife and 
precious children, the nucleus of a new start in life, 
glorified by woman's courage and fidelity under a most 
trying ordeal. 

"For a twelve-month the exigencies of their situation 
deprived her of a decent pair of shoes; still she toiled 
in the kitchen, the garden, and, perhaps, the open field, 
without a repining word or complaining murmur. The 
same material is found in a steel rail as in the watch 
spring, and the noly difference between the soldier and 
his wife was physical strength." 

This was no exceptional case. The hardships of 
Georgia women were extreme and long-continued. 

In October after the war ended, a conventon met in 
Milledgeville to re-establish the state government if 
possible. While they were in session, the authorities at 
Washington sent them a telegram to the effect that the 
thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States, which was abolition of slavery, and, also, the 
repudiation of the war debt, would be deemed essen- 
tial before Georgia was recognized as a State. Our 
people were honorable in their every instinct, and they 
made an earnest protest against the dictation of the 
Federal government, especially in the matter of ignor- 
ing the war debt. They adopted a new Constitution for 
Georgia, which abolished slavery, and ordered an elec- 
tion for governor. 

During this same month, a very perfect annular 
eclipse of the sun was visible in Georgia ; a most inter- 
esting and unusual spectacle ! The unobscured part of 
the sun presented the appearance of a beautiful lumi- 
nous ring. The landscape was veiled in a half twilight, 
and animals and fowls appeared uneasy. The chickens 
especilly seemed disturbed, and stood around in the 
yard irresolute about going to roost. 

In one of our up-country towns a gentleman asked a 
privileged old negro if she had been looking at the 
eclipse. "No, sir," she replied, "I don' waste no time 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

looking at sich t'ings. It ain't a sarcumstance, nohow, 
to ole Virginny, whar I come from. We had better 
'clipses than this nearly every week, up dar." 

By the end of December, the required oath had been 
taken by most citizens who were permitted to do so, 
and they were endeavoring to pursue their daily occu- 
pations in peace. Georgia also had a governor of her 
own choosing, Hon. Charles J. Jenkins, one of her no- 
blest sons; but he could not be inaugurated without the 
consent of the Federal government. The legislature 
then in session elected Alexander H. Stephens and Her- 
schel V. Johnson, United States Senators; but neither 
they nor our representatives were allowed to take their 
seats. Still, Georgia was paying her proportion of the 
taxes, and the Federal government was guilty of the 
same wrong (taxation without representation) for 
which the thirteen colonies had censured Great Britain 
and gone to war with her in 1776. 

The President of the United States now proclaimed 
that Georgia had adopted the Thirteenth Amendment; 
but this state was not a member of the Union, was not 
represented in Congress, so her vote could not be le- 
gally counted. 

Our beloved state had now become a land of mem- 
ories which endeared her a thousandfold to the hearts 
of her sons and daughters! "A land without ruins is a 
land without memories — a land without memories is a 
land without liberty. A land that wears a laurel crown 
may be fair to see, but twine a few sad cypress leaves 
around the brow of any land, and be that a land beau- 
tiless and bleak, it becomes lovely in its consecrated 
coronet of sorrow, and it wins the sympathy of the 
heart of history. Crowns of roses fade — crowns of 
thorns endure. Calvaries and crucifixes take deepest 
hold of humanity ; the triumphs of might are transient, 
they pass away and are forgotten; the suffering of 
Right are graven deepest on the chronicles of nations." 

When the Congress of the United States met in the 
winter of 1865-66, the War Party of the North had a 
majority in both Houses. They proposed the Four- 
teenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, which 
would allow all negroes to vote who were twenty-one 
years of age and upward, and at the same time disfran- 



FROM "GEORGIA LAND AND PEOPLE" 

chise hundreds of thousands of the white men of the 
South. This amendment also prohibited any Southern- 
er from holding ofRce if, before the war, he had ever 
held any position of honor or trust. State or Federal, 
from the highest to the lowest. This act was passed in 
face of the fact, that in several Western States negroes 
were not allowed to vote, and Congress had never pre- 
sumed to interfere with those States. It was at this 
time that these agitators were first called by the party 
name of "Radicals." 

Georgia and the other Southern States, emphatically 
refusing to consider the new amendment, were declar- 
ed to be in a state of "rebellion" ; so the Reconstruction 
Committee of Congress was created, and martial law, 
was proclaimed in time of peace. The Constitution 
gave Congress no such right, therefore it was a gross 
usurpation of power. 

The State of Georgia was now wiped out by Act of 
Congress, and with Florida and Alabama, was called 
"District Number 3." The Federal General Pope, who 
was put in command, had absolute power over the life, 
liberty and property of our citizens. Elections accord- 
ing to legal form were abolished whenever it was his 
desire. A mayor for Augusta and a sheriff for Bartow 
county were appointed by a Federal officer. It was 
threatened that the University should be closed, and 
that the appropriation due it from the State should be 
withheld, because one of the students made a speech at 
commencement that was considered objectionable by 
the Commander of "District Number 3." The subject 
of the speech was "The Vital Principles of Nations — 
Obedience to Organic Law." This brilliant young man 
subsequently served his state as a legislator, and made 
for himself an honorable career. Dr. A. A. Lipscomb, 
the Chancellor of the University at that time, dissuaded 
the Federal officer from executing his threat. 

Thus was inaugurated a new war. Georgia's Con- 
stitution was set aside ; Georgia's sons were not allowed 
to vote; and the Fourteenth Amendment, under the 
dictation of the bayonet, was declared to have been 
adopted. Georgia was treated like a conquered 
province, and proclaimed to be no longer a member of 
the Union; and yet, constitutional amendments were 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

submitted to her as a sovereign State, to be accepted or 
rejected. The inconsistencies of the Federal Congress 
and their usurpations of power from the beginning of 
the war, had been amazing! And it had been still 
more amazing that none of the Northern or Western 
States had protested against it! 

Warren county was situated in "the black belt"; 
that is, it was in a section where the negroes outnum- 
bered the white people. The Yankee soldiers and the 
agents of the Freedman's Bureau filled the heads of the 
negroes with erroneous ideas, and kept them in a con- 
tinual ferment. They were told that they would be 
lords of the whole country in a few years, and were 
encouraged not to work for white people. The negroes 
almost ceased to work, but they had to live, so petty 
thieving and other lawlessness in this county became 
intolerable. 

A fifteen-year-old negro boy went to a gentleman and 
asked what he would take for his house, saying he 
wished to buy it. The boy meant no insolence and the 
gentleman was simply amused. He well knew who had 
confused his ideas about the rights of property and all 
other rights. 

A mean white man in this county, who sided with the 
Yankees (belonging to the same class who became 
Tories in the Revolutionary war), and who had made 
himself very obnoxious to all decent people by his in- 
cendiary talk, was one night peppered with bird shot. 
It could not hurt him, and was only done to frighten 
his cowardly soul; but the whole county was at once 
put under martial law. For years a command of Fed- 
eral soldiers was stationed in Warrenton. From time 
to time both officers and men were removed, and an 
entirely new set took their places. It was feared that, 
if they remained there too long, they might learn to 
like the people and show them some kindness and sum- 
pathy. The life and liberty of every honest white per- 
son in the county was at the mercy of the Federal 
Major in command. 

These were also trying times for our negroes, who 
were constantly being told that their late masters were 
their greatest enemies. There were so many bad influ- 
ences brought to bear upon them, the wonder is that 

10 



FROM "GEORGIA LAND AND PEOPLE" 

more acts of violence were not committed. Many of 
the young negroes had become dissipated and were 
easy tools in the hands of the Radicals, but through it 
all, with comparatively few exceptions, the negroes be- 
haved with respect and decorum towards their owners. 
Still, petty thieving was universal, with sometimes a 
midnight robbery or a murder, which was traced to 
negroes under Radical influences. 

Later on, when the negroes discovered that these 
strangers cared nothing for them except to use them as 
political tools, it was to their owners that they instinc- 
tively turned for aid and sympathy in misfortune, and 
they never appealed in vain. When Georgians again 
obtained control of the State Government, they protect- 
ed the negroes, and have assisted them from that day 
to this, in every way possible. 

By this time the agents of the Freedman's Bureau 
had perpetrated so many outrages against the negroes, 
that the United States Congress could no longer ignore 
their misdeeds, so they were removed, and Federal 
officers were put in their places in "District Number 3." 

A host of Yankees, either left by the Federal army 
or subsequently sent down from the North, now swarm- 
ed in Georgia. They had no permanent habitation 
here, no interest, no property, no sympathy with us. 
Their sole purpose was to hold office, get money, and 
slander our people. They were called "carpet-bag- 
gers," and the penniless adventurers were called 
"scalawags." 

During this horrible period, which was neither peace 
nor war, Benjamin H. Hill, who had recently been very 
active in re-organizing the Democratic party in Geor- 
gia, wrote a series of papers called "Notes on the Situ- 
ation," embodying arguments of great power against 
the Reconstruction policy. These "Notes" merit the 
name of "Phillipics." In one of them he thus briefly 
describes the position of Georgians at this time: "The 
complying accept, the resolute reject, none approve, 
while all despise!" 

Gov. Jenkins went to Washington and made a brave 
fight for Georgia in the judicial forum, but his elo- 
quence and the justice of his cause were alike unavail- 
ing. His manly advice to his fellow-citizens in this 

11 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

crisis was, "a firm but temperate refusal of acquies- 
cence" in any of the Reconstruction measures. Geor- 
gia, as a State, has never countenanced usurpation nor 
injustice, and she entered her protest now, though her 
voice was unheeded. 

During those days of lawlessness and misrule, a party 
of Radicals and Federal soldiers were sent to Elbert 
county to establish a Freedman's Bureau. The first 
night after their arrival, their camp was surrounded, 
and though no one was visible, the welkin rang with 
shouts, hoots, yells and the snapping of guns and pis- 
tols, until it seemed as if pandemonium was turned 
loose. This deafening noise was kept up, hour after 
hour, so that sleep fled from the eyes of the intruders. 
Before the break of day the sound gradually grew 
fainter, until they melted away in the woods. 

The next day the Radicals left without accomplish- 
ing their purpose, saying they would return with a regi- 
ment of Federal soldiers and burn every house in the 
county ; but nothing more was ever heard of them. 

Elbert was the banner county of Georgia during the 
Reconstruction period. No Freedman's Bureau was 
ever established there, nor was a single Radical vote 
cast while Georgia was in the power of the Federal 
Congress. 

The reason for this happy state of affairs was that 
Elbert county was far from the railroad, and was in- 
habited by a people of pure Southern blood, whose 
lands were not for sale. Their beautiful plantations 
had descended from father to son, for generations — in 
some instances from the Colonial period — so there was 
no alien blood to cause a division of the people, and 
Elbert was a unit against Radicalism. 

In December, 1867, the Congressional Reconstruction 
Convention, backed by the military, was in session in 
Atlanta. It was composed, with few exceptions, of in- 
ferior white men and negroes. The Convention had 
been empowered to levy a tax to pay its expenses, 
which shows that Congress had not intended that the 
money should be drawn from the State treasury. How- 
ever, at the end of two or three weeks, "the poor 
whites" and the negroes were clamoring for their pay, 
and the all-absorbing question was how to obtain the 

12 



FROM "GEORGIA LAND AND PEOPLE" 

necessary money. 

Col. John Jones was the Treasurer of Georgia at that 
time. According to the law, in order to draw any 
State money, it was first necessary to get a warrant 
from the Governor and then present it to the Treasurer. 

The leaders of the bogus Convention finally put their 
heads together and passed a resolution instructing the 
State Treasurer to pay their agent forty thousand dol- 
lars, to defray the exepnses of the Convention. In the 
meantime. Gen. Pope had been relieved of the com- 
mand of "District Number 3," and Gen, Meade put in 
his place. A copy of this resolution, indorsed by Gen. 
Meade, was carried by the agent to Milledgeville, pre- 
sented to Col. Jones, and the money demanded. 

The Treasurer politely but firmly replied that he 
could not pay out money without an Executive warrant. 
Hearing this, the agent at once returned to Atlanta, 
well knowing it would be a waste of time to apply to 
Gov. Jenkins, who regarded the Convention as an ille- 
gal body. 

The firm and patriotic stand of Georgia's Governor 
caused Gen. Meade considerable embarrassment. He 
finally sought an interview, in which he asked: 

"Do I understand, that you would not have responded 
to the Convention's order for an Executive warrant? 

"Certainly not!" answered the Governor. 

Gen. Meade then said he regretted the existence of 
such a condition of affairs, and asked his reasons for 
acting as he was doing in this matter. 

Gov. Jenkins promptly replied that, under the Con- 
stitution of Georgia, which he had sworn to support, 
no funds could be drawn from the treasury except by 
an Executive warrant for an appropriation made by 
Georgia law. In this case the legislature had made no 
appropriation. 

Gen. Meade listened to the Governor with profound 
attention, and admitted that as a citizen he did not ma- 
terially differ from him ; but as a Federal officer whose 
duty it was to enforce the reconstruction measures of 
Congress, he would be compelled to remove the Gov- 
ernor if he did not re-consider his determination. This 
threat did not in the least disturb Gov. Jenkins, and he 
courteously replied that his decision would never be 

13 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

changed. Gen. Meade said, he would give hime time 
to re-consider the matter, and then took his leave. 

In the tempestuous years that followed the surrender 
the Confederate soldier was pushed into the back- 
ground for a while by the force of circumstances, but 
he was very dear to the heart of Georgia and constitut- 
ed an undercurrent of great power in the land. In the 
first legislature that was convened after hostilities ceas- 
ed, a majority of the members were old citizens of the 
State, and they voted an appropriation to buy artificial 
limbs for Georgia's mained soldiers. Before the war 
had been ended a year, Mrs. Mary Ann Williams, the 
lady who instituted the "Wayside Homes," suggested 
that the 26th of April, the day on which Gen. Joseph 
E. Johnston surrendered, should be set apart annually 
to decorate the graves of our gallant Confederate dead. 
In her communication to the Press she wrote: "They 
died defending the life, honor and happiness of the 
Southern women ♦ * * ^jj ^j^j their duty 
and to all we owe our gratitude. Let the soldier's 
graves, for that day at least, be the Southern Mecca to 
whose shrine her sorrowing women, like pilgrims, may 
annually bring their grateful hearts and floral offer- 
ings." 

The idea found ready response in every city, town, 
village and hamlet, not only in Georgia, but throughout 
the South; and Memorial Day became an established 
custom and legal holiday in Georgia. 

This noble woman received a large share of love and 
gratitude from her State, and when she died, eight 
years later, she was buried with military honors. Her 
grave is decorated every Memorial Day with the same 
high respect as if she had been a Confederate soldier. 

Georgia's record as a member of the Southern Con- 
federacy will never be forgotten; and "the names and 
deeds of her soldiers will live in memory and be per- 
petuated as legends, and thus treasured up as themes 
for song and story, for ages to come !" 

Let the generous youth of Georgia, through whose 
veins courses the blood of Confederate heroes, keep their 
memories green and emulate their virtues and their 
patriotism ! 

Georgia's intrepid Governor, Charles J. Jenkins, 

14 



FROM "GEORGIA LAND AND PEOPLE" 

knew his duty and dared to perform it in the face of 
Federal bayonets. He issued an order suspending the 
collection of the taxes by which the bogus Convention 
was trying to raise money, and instructed Col. Jones to 
conceal the State funds. 

Only a few days after Gen. Meade's visit, the Gov- 
ernor received a letter from him demanding an Execu- 
tive warrant for forty thousand dollars. In his reply, 
he respectfully but positively refused to comply with 
the demand. So Gen. Meade ordered his rmoval from 
the office to which he had been elected by the people of 
Georgia, upon the ground that he denied the validity 
of the reconstruction laws. 

In a short time after this. Gen. Thomas Ruger, of the 
Federal army, called at the Executive Mansion. It was 
so evident that he was reluctant to tell the object of his 
visit, that Gov. Jenkins met him half way by remark- 
ing: "I have been informed that Gen. Meade has re- 
moved me from office, and appoint you as Provisional 
Governor, to assume my duties." 

''That is my business here," said Gen. Ruger, "and I 
hope. Governor, that you will offer no resistance." 

"Before answering you," responded the Governor, 
'permit me to ask you a question. Are you instructed, 
if necessary, to use force to dispossess me of this of- 
fice?" 

Gen. Ruger's face flushed as he replied: "I am sir; 
and here are my orders." 

Gov. Jenkins quietly inspected the document, which 
was signed by Gen. Meade, and then made the noble 
reply which won for him the title of "Grand old Ro- 
man": "Sir, you have the army of the United States at 
your back, and I can summon not even a respectable 
police force. I therefore elect to bow out to you, rather 
than to a file of soldiers with muskets and bayonets; 
but I denounce this proceeding as an outrage upon the 
rights of this State, and had I an adequate force I 
would resist you to the last extremity." 

After some further conversation. Gen. Ruger asked 
why he had suspended the collection of taxes ordered 
by the Convention. Gov. Jenkins declined to render 
any account of his oflicial acts to the new Provisional 
Governor appointed by the military. 

15 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

The words used by Gen. Meade in his written order 
appointing Gen. Ruger, were that he was "detailed for 
duty in the District of Georgia," to be provisional gov- 
ernor. This base usurpation of State authority on the 
part of the Federal Government, in time of peace, is 
without parallel in the annals of any government call- 
ing itself a republic. 

From the Executive Mansion Gen. Ruger hastened to 
the office of the Treasurer, but he found only an empty 
vault and some old books. As Col. Jones refused to 
give any information, an order was issued for his arrest, 
and a new Treasurer was appointed. Gov. Jenkins' 
order suspending the collection of taxes was also at 
once revoked. The earnings of the State Road were 
also paid to the bogus Treasurer and used for illegal 
purposes by the usurping government. 

In the meantime. Gov. Jenkins had hastily arranged 
his affairs and returned to his home in Augusta. The 
State funds, the Great Seal of Georgia, and some valu- 
able documents had been carefully concealed, and 
never passed into the hands of the Federals. 

Our Governor did not sit idly at home and leave his 
beloved State to her fate, but exhausted every effort to 
prove that the reconstruction laws were unconstitu- 
tional. Gen. Ruger ordered his arrest, but the officials 
everywhere in the State disregarded the order, and 
made no effort to interfere with his movements; but 
when our Governor discovered that the Superme Court 
of the United States was overawed by the Radicals, 
and redress at that time was impossible for Georgia's 
wrongs, he retired with his family to Nova Scotia. 

While Georgia was suffering from the despotism of 
the Reconstruction Acts of Congress, the aliens who 
ruled our State moved the capital to Atlanta. They 
hoped that this change would win North Georgia to 
their interests, but the people of that section never for 
a moment swerved from their duty. Atlanta had risen, 
phenix-like, from its ashes, and was again a flourishing 
town, with as large a population as it had possessed 
before it was burned by Sherman. 

It was the policy of the Federals to keep up a sem- 
blance of law, so they now ordered that there should 
be an election for governor. 

16 



FROM "GEORGIA LAND AND PEOPLE" 

The Radicals, some time before this, not content 
with having the Federal Government and army at 
their back, had formed a secret society, called the 
Union League, to influence elections in the South. Ne- 
groes who were notoriously corrupt, held offices of 
trust in Georgia, and ignorant ones were put on the 
grand juries and sat in the legislature. There was ab- 
solutely no redress in any legitimate way for the enor- 
mities practiced in our State, and the Ku-klux Klan 
sprang into existence, preserving peace and order to 
a large extent by playing on the superstitions of the 
negroes and the low white people. The name originat- 
ed from imitating the call of a hen to gather her chick- 
ens under her wings when danger threatens them. 

The members of this mysterious Klan were never 
seen except at night and then they were always mount- 
ed. The came and went like phantoms, and the foot- 
fall of their horses never made a sound, as their hoofs 
were covered with half-tanned leather, or wrapped in 
hay which was tied on with a piece of cloth. It was a 
dreadful sight to the ignorant to see a troop of horse- 
men all shrouded in black and as silent as the grave, 
ride swiftly up to a house, surround it, gaze at it ear- 
nestly, with red, green and blue lights flashing from 
their bodies, and then melt away as silently as they had 
come. These masqueraders were always enveloped in 
a loose black robe, with a black calico mask that fell 
down over the shoulders. On top of this mask was 
sometimes worn a grotesque or hideous head-dress. On 
one occasion an ingenius Kuklux wore an illuminated 
skull. 

The Kuklux made a powerful impression on the 
imagination of the ignorant, which neither time, nor a 
knowledge of the means used to frighten people, has 
been able to entirely eradicate. 

Late one night, a negro who was returning home 
along a country road, without having heard a sound to 
break the stillness, suddenly found himself by the side 
of a horseman who looked to be ten feet in height. He 
took off his head, and in very polite terms asked the 
negro to hold it while he arranged his backbone. The 
face of the negro turned to an ashy hue, and without 
uttering a word, he disappeared in the woods. 

17 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

One of the most awe-inspiring things about the Ku- 
klux was their amazing swiftness and profound silence. 
They rarely uttered a word, if they could make a sign 
answer the purpose. One hot night in midsumer, when 
the silvery rays of the full moon were glorifying earth 
and sky, a solitary Kuklux rode up to a negro's house 
and demanded a drink of water. The family dared not 
refuse it, and one of them tremblingly carried out a 
bucket and a dipper. To t?ie horror of the spectators, 
the phantom raised the bucket to his lips and, draining 
it dry, immediately departed like a shadow. 

Mischief-makers and those who were trying to stir 
up the evil passions of the negroes were warned in a 
hollow and sepulchral voice to quit the country. If the 
offense was stealing, the rogues were told in some 
blood-curdling manner that they would have to leave 
the neighborhood if they did not behave themselves, 
and one admonition conveyed in that awful manner 
was usually sufficient. 

The terror with which the negroes regarded the Ku- 
klux Klan produced some ludicrous mistakes. At this 
time Union Point was a small country village, divided 
between the Baptists and the Methodists. An Episco- 
pal clergyman, desiring to have services for the benefit 
of a few members of his church who lived in that vicin- 
ity, borrowed the Methodist church for the occasion. 
His coming created a great sensation, as very few of 
the people had ever heprd the Episcopal service. Curi- 
osity was so strong that the crowd was increased by 
quite a large gathering from the country. The men 
collected around the church door waiting for the min- 
ister; and, as was usual in Georgia, a good many ne- 
groes were grouped on the outskirts of the crowed to see 
what was going on. Instead of entering the church di- 
rectly, the clergyman approached by a back way, that 
he might have an opportunity to put on his robe behind 
the church. As soon as the negroes caught sight of him 
coming around the corner of the building, they yelled, 
"Kuklux!" "Kuklux!" and in the twinkling of an eye 
every one of them had vanished. 

During these evil days, the negroes held the balance 
of power in Georgia, and the ballot-box was guarded by 
Federal bayonets. It was almost impossible to identify 

18 



FROM "GEORGIA LAND AND PEOPLE" 

the average plantation negro, so when the time came 
for the gubernatorial election ordered by the Federals, 
the Radical manager had such as he needed transported 
from one place to another, and the same negro could 
cast several votes without much fear of detection. 

In spite of all this wickedness, the heroic John B. 
Gordon, who had been put forward by the Democrats, 
was undoubtedly elected, but the office was awarded to 
a Radical, Ruf us Bullock, who was a native of the State 
of New York. Anything that a negro or a Radical 
would swear to, was considered legal evidence by the 
Federals; so, when the election went Democratic, the 
Radical manager of elections, E. Hulburt, wrote to one 
of his agents : "We want affidavits proving force, fraud 
and intimidation in violation of general orders. We 
must have them, and plenty of them. Go to work and 
get them up at once." 

When the usurper was inaugurated Governor of 
Georgia, Gen. Meade declared military authority at an 
end; which simply meant that Federal officers would 
not be so conspicuous as formerly, but would hide the 
despotism of their Government with the cloak of so- 
called law. 

Before this election came off, early in the summer of 
this year of feverish excitement, an illiterate, disreput- 
able white man, named Ashburn, who lived in a low 
negro quarter in Columbus, was one night killed by an 
unknown mob. As he was an extreme Radical, and 
had made incendiary speeches to the negroes, the mil- 
itary at once took the matter in hand and arrested, 
upon mere suspicion, some twenty young men of re- 
spectable families. There was no trial by jury under 
military despotism, and it was whispered that the mur- 
der was the work of Kuklux. These young men were 
carried to Fort Pulaski, which had been converted 
into a military prison, and there thrust into dungeon- 
like cells, whose horrors were scarcely inferior to 
the Black Hole of Calcutta. Neither beds nor blan- 
kets were allowed them, and they were tortured by 
myriads of mosquitoes. Their rations were fat pork, 
anci beef which was too unsound to eat. To each of 
them was given an old oyster can in which both soup 
and coffee were served. They were denied all com- 

19 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

munication with their friends. Afterwards, when they 
were transferred to the McPherson Barracks, in Atlan- 
ta, the treatment given them was no better. 

If there was one thing more than another that a Car- 
petbagger and a Scalawag hated, it was a gentleman, 
and they rejoiced when he was humiliated and treated 
with indignity. 

Much cruelty was practiced upon the negro witnesses 
to force them to testify against the Columbus prisoners 
as the Radicals desired. An instrument of torture was 
invented, called the "sweat-box," and put in Fort Pu- 
laski. It was just large enough to admit the victim, and 
was arranged by screws for compression, so that a force 
could be brought upon the prisoner sufficient to squeeze 
the breath out of him. The box was also provided with 
a steam apparatus, connected with it by pipes. By 
simply turning a faucet, jets of steam were thrown into 
it until the heat became unbearable. Three witnesses 
suffered this torture, one of whom was a negro. He, 
poor soul, cried out in a few minutes, that he would 
swear anything if they would only let him out of that 
box. 

The torture of prisoners without any sort of trial or 
any evidence against them, fired the heart of Georgia 
for many years, and caused it to throb with indignation. 

Finally, when the military gave way to the Radical 
Governor, Gen. Meade issued an order adjourning the 
military commission that was trying the Columbus pris- 
oners, and they were turned over to the civil law. Alex- 
ander H. Stephens, Martin J. Crowford, Gen. Benning, 
and several other prominent lawyers whom Georgia 
has delighted to honor, became counsel for the prison- 
ers. At last, these innocent young men were released 
on bond, permitted to return home, and the matter was 
dropped. 

Under Rufus Bullock, our beloved State was given 
over to the hands of carpetbaggers and scalawags, 
whose conduct was more outrageous that ever before. 
These penniless adventurers heaped injuries and in- 
sults upon our people, and robbed the very negroes 
whom they were using as an instrument to uphold their 
power. 

When crimes were committed by their followers, 

20 



FROM "GEORGIA LAND AND PEOPLE" 

means were always found to exempt them from punish- 
ment, while stories of the brutality of Georgians to 
their negroes were industriously manufactured, and 
sent to the Republicans as stock in trade for their party. 
The more hideous the tale, the more it was relished at 
the North, and each one was rolled as a sweet morsel 
under their tongues. 

The acts of the Congress of the United States, each 
year after the war ended, justified more and more em- 
phatically the necessity that was placed upon Georgia 
to sever her connection with the Federal Union, in or- 
der to maintain her honor and her self-respect, even 
at the expense of wounds and desolation and death ! 
Time, the great Mother of Truth, will vindicate the 
position of our State. 

The State Democratic Convention and the Legislature 
both met in Atlanta in July, 1868. Many of our leading 
public men were there, and it was thought to be a suit- 
able occasion for a political mass-meeting. About 
twenty thousand Georgians gathered on that memor- 
able occasion, which witnessed the largest mass-meet- 
ing ever before held in our State. To accommodate the 
crowd, an immense bush arbor was erected in what 
was then a large, open space on Alabama street. The 
four orators were Gen. Howell Cobb, Gen. Robert 
Toombs, Hon. Benjamin H. Hill, and Col. Raphael J. 
Moses. They hurled their anathemas against the Re- 
construction Acts, in fiery addresses that were after- 
wards called the "Bush Arbor Speeches." Mr. Hill had 
already revived the drooping spirits of the Democracy 
by the trumpet blasts of his "Notes on the Situation," 
and men were eager to hear what further message he 
had for them. He came grandly to the front, and dis- 
played his splendid eloquence in denouncing the usur- 
pation of power by the Federal Congress. 

Although it was a hot summer day and the hard 
plank benches in the arbor were uncomfortable to the 
last degree, they were closely packed. Georgians sat 
there for five hours, unconscious of the lapse of time, 
as they enthusiastically listened to the burning elo- 
quence of those speakers, and overwhelmed them with 
applause whenever they gave the Reconstructionists a 
hard thrust. It was noted that among the audience 

21 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

were many ladies, who hung with rapt attention upon 
the words of the orators. 

There had never been in Georgia an era of more uni- 
versal excitment than the present. The Legislature 
which was now in session was not entirely under Rad- 
ical influence, and a vote of the majority expelled the 
ineligible negroes who had been seated. This action 
put the bogus Governor, the other Radicals in Georgia, 
and the United States Congress in a ferment. The Re- 
construction Committee sat, and, by the next year, 
Georgia, was declared to be in a state of rebellion and 
was again put under military rule. 

October 9th, 1868, four days after the Legislature 
adjourned. Gen. Howell Cobb died of heart disease in 
New York City. The suddenness of his death was a 
great shock to our whole State, where he had so long 
been loved and honored. Georgia mourned him as a 
favorite son, for he had always defended her with 
sword, pen, and eloquent tongue. He was comparative- 
ly a young man when he was first elected to the Con- 
gress of the United States, but he soon took a high posi- 
tion among the leaders of his party, and eventually, as 
a statesman, became one of the political lights of Amer- 
ica. 

Again, in 1869, with glaring inconsistency, Georgia 
was called upon to ratify another Constitutional 
Amendment, the Fifteenth, by which negroes could 
hold office; yet it was declared by the Federal Con- 
gress that Georgia was not a State. 

It was the policy of the Radicals to imbitter Geor- 
gians and their negroes, but in this unholy design they 
never succeeded to any appreciable extent. Still, they 
continually made the effort, and "the Southern out- 
rages" weapon was freely used, the bogus Governor 
giving his official sanction to the slanders. 

The Federal General, Terry, was not in command in 
Georgia; but Rufus Bullock, without authority, issued 
a proclamation calling the legislature to assemble, and 
signed himself "Provisional Governor," though he had 
not received the appointment from Congress. The Leg- 
islature which convened under these circumstances, in 
January, 1870, was a parody on government. The Rad- 
ical, Benjamin Conley, who was President of the Sen- 



FROM "GEORGIA LAND AND PEOPLE" 

ate, said in his address to that body: "The Govern- 
ment has determined that in this republic — which is 
not, never was, and never can be a democracy — that 
in this republic. Republicans shall rule." 

A Federal officer sending his order to the House of 
Representatives that such and such members could not 
be seated, was one of the strange acts now witnessed. 
The arbitrary measures and lawlessness of this body of 
men were an outrage on decency, and many disgraceful 
scenes occurred. Democrats were turned out and ne- 
groes seated, for no other reason than that the Radicals 
willed it. A Democratic senator was not allowed to 
take his seat, because he had sold beef to Confederate 
soldiers. Things went from bad to worse until the bo- 
gus Governor obtained entire control of the Legislature, 
and all honest Republicans were disgusted with their 
own work. Afterwards, a Republican from Georgia, 
in a speech before the United States Senate, thus spoke 
of this legislature: "Men looked amazed and aghast. 
If there ever were Kuklux in Georgia, it occurred to me 
that this was about the time they ought to have shown 
themselves — when a stranger, a man wholly a stranger 
to the Legislature, and almost to the whole people of 
the State, appeared there and occupied the chair of 
Speaker, thundering out his edicts to the representa- 
tives of the people, ordering them to disperse and be- 
gone to their homes, adjourning them at his pleasure 
and calling them back when he pleased, and these obe- 
dient servants of the people going and doing his be- 
hests! Why, sir, the scene was pitiable!" 

The aliens who were running the State Government 
were guilty of a frightful degree of fraud in every de- 
partment. Corruption ran rampant, and they tried to 
drag this grand old State to the lowest depths of degra- 
dation by publishing to the world that it was ravaged 
by the Kuklux Klan. To give some color to the tale, a 
number of citizens from North Georgia had been drag- 
ged from their homes and humiliated by imprisonment 
in Atlanta. An examination showed not a vestige of 
evidence against them, and they had to be released. 

Backed by United States bayonets, and with their 
hands up to the elbows in the treasury of Georgia, the 
Carpetbaggers squandered money for bribes, for pri- 

23 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

vate entertainments, for personal aggrandizement and 
ambition, and Georgia people had to foot the bills — • 
their enemies, in triumph, gloating over their defense- 
less condition. 

While these disgraceful scenes were being enacted 
in our beloved State, Georgia's governor was an exile, 
and her sons could only look with horror at the mis- 
deeds of the men in power. They had no alternative 
but to adopt the Fabian policy of watching and waiting. 

At length, the evil conduct and mismanagement of 
the Carpetbaggers in control became to notorious that 
the Federal Congress was forced to investigate the mat- 
ter. The corruption of Rufus Bullock was proved, but 
he was not deprived of his power — only a vote of cen- 
sure being passed upon him. 

In the summer of this year, the Democrats held a 
Convention in Atlanta. Gen. Alfred H. Colquitt, who 
had illustrated Georgia on the battle-fields of two 
States, was elected president. Many prominent Geor- 
gians who had taken no active part in public affairs 
since the war, appeared in this Convention, the object 
of which was to consolidate party elements in opposi- 
tion to the rule of Carpetbaggers. There were now, as 
always, shades of political difference among Georgians, 
but they all called themselves Democrats in their fight 
with the Republicans. Standing squarely upon the old 
platform of the sovereignty of the State, the members 
of the Convention invited all Georgians to unite with 
them in a zealous effort to change the usurping and cor- 
rupt administration of the State Government. When 
the election came off in the fall, in spite of the military 
guards at the polls to influence votes the Democratic 
majority was large. 

While this canvass was in progress, the illustrious 
Confederate General, Robert E. Lee, died. Georgia 
shared the profound grief felt by the whole South at 
the loss of this renowned chieftain, and paid appropri- 
ate honors to his memory. In Savannah, when the sad 
news was known, the performances were discontinued 
at several places of amusement and the audiences sadly 
dispersed to their homes. It was in this city that Gen. 
Lee performed his first military service, when he was a 
young lieutenant of engineers, just graduated from 

24 



FROM "GEORGIA LAND AND PEOPLE" 

West Point; and again, in the war between the States, 
the "Forest City" was his home while he was com- 
mander of the defenses on the Southern coast. 

As soon as the Republicans learned the results of the 
fall elections they pronounced them illegal. The 8th 
Congressional District, which Alexander H. Stephens 
had rendered famous, was declared to be in a state of 
rebellion and put under martial law. Linton Stephens, 
ex-justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, was order- 
ed to be arrested. He had been very prominent in the 
Democratic Convention, and also in organizing the elec- 
tions throughout the State, and had especially taken an 
active part in preventing illegal voting in Sparta, where 
he resided. He voluntarily answered to the warrant 
without arrest, as soon as he heard of the order. 

He was carried before Commissioner Swayze, a Fed- 
eral Carpetbag officer at Macon. The speech in which 
he made his defense was matchless. "The wealth of 
all forensic literature may be searched in vain for a 
performance that surpasses it in point of genuine man- 
liness, civil courage, nervous English and the eloquence 
of patriotic fervor, or cogent, compact, red-hot logic." 
This remarkable speech ended with these patriotic 
words: "If angry power demands a sacrifice from 
those who have thwarted its fraudulent purposes, I feel 
honored, sir, in being selected as the victim. If my suf- 
fering could arouse my countrymen to a just and lofty 
indignation against the despotism which, in attacking 
me, is but assailing law, order and constitutional gov- 
ernment, I would not shrink from the sacrifice, though 
my blood should be required instead of my liberty!" 

Judge Stephens was dismissed under bond, to appear 
before the next Federal court in Savannah. At this 
term, of the court the indictment was ignored by the 
grand jury and nothing more was ever heard of the 
matter. 

The Carpetbaggers, who were still in power, saw 
that the Georgians were surely, even though slowly, 
getting control. A Democratic victory meant an in- 
quiry into their mismanagement. Knowing that their 
acts would not bear investigation, they stuck together 
and made one last desperate effort to keep in power. 
Their most effective weapons in the fight were still 

2& 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

"Southern outrages" and "the horrors of the Kuklux 
Klan," that "band of secret assassins." It certainly 
was not a good showing for the Federal Government, 
nor for the Carpetbaggers, with unlimited power, and 
the United States army at their back, that none of these 
criminals were ever caught and brought to justice. 
Does it not prove that the "Slander-mill" was but anoth- 
er political machine of the Republican party? 

While these events were progressing, and the Repub- 
lican edifice in Georgia — which had been erected on 
such a false foundation — was toppling to its ruin, the 
bogus Governor, with great secrecy, resigned, turning 
over his office to one of his confederates, Benjamin Con- 
ley. He then fled from the State, a fugitive from jus- 
tice. It was seven days after his flight before it was 
known to the public, and then he was beyond pursuit. 
It must be borne in mind that none of the official acts of 
this usurper were legal. 

An investigation of State affairs showed an unparal- 
leled degree of corruption, and that Georgia had been 
saddley with an enormous debt. The incredible sum 
of two million dollars was spent in one year upon the 
State Road alone. The Carpetbagger, Foster Blodgett, 
was superintendent of the Road, and he used it to ad- 
vance Radical power. Over a thousand names of of- 
ficers appeared upon its pay-roll, many of whom had 
never rendered any service whatever; they were simply 
political employees, retained to assist in keeping the 
Carpetbaggers in power, and they had lived off the 
people whom they so vilely oppressed. 

When the legislature met and was organized, James 
M. Smith, a gallant Georgia Colonel in the war between 
the States, was chosen Speaker of the House. Benja- 
min Conley, who was playing the role of Governor, 
should have resigned — according to law — as his term 
as President of the Senate had expired, but he refused 
to do so. With wonderful patience, the Democrats in 
the legislature declined to wrangle over the matter, but 
left it to the people of Georgia to decide by calling an 
election for Governor, to be held during the following 
December. Col. James M. Smith was put forward by 
the Democrats and elected. He had no opposition. 
The Republicans, with the odium upon them of the ras- 

26 



FROM "GEORGIA LAND AND PEOPLE" 

calities of carpetbag government, nominated one of 
their numbers, James Atkins, but he declined to make 
the canvass. 

For years Georgia had been groaning under woes 
and insults innumerable — had been ruled by foreigners 
hostile to her interests — but she had grappled bravely 
with Radicalism and fought it whenever opportunity 
offered. Three times had civil law been set aside in 
this State and martial law imposed upon it; seven times 
had the President and the Congress of the United 
States bent their energies to keep this impoverished 
commonwealth in the condition of a conquered prov- 
ince; but this had been impossible, and once again 
Georgia was under the control of her own sons. 

James M. Smith, the successor of Gov. Jenkins, was 
inaugurated January 12th, 1872, amid universal rejoic- 
ing. It will be noted that when the Confederate sol- 
diers were allowed to vote, they rallied to the rescue of 
their beloved State and delivered it from Carpetbag- 
gers, Scalawags and bayonet rule. 

These aliens left Georgia without funds with which to 
carry on the Government, and without credit. In this 
emergency. Gen. Toombs and some other gentlemen 
supplied the necessary money until taxes were col- 
lected. 

When Georgia was redeemed from military despot- 
ism. Gov. Jenkins returned from his exile. A full and 
just account of the State funds was rendered, and the 
Great Seal and the valuable documents were returned. 

The letters from the "grand old Roman" to Gov. 
Smith concluded as follows: "The removal of the books 
and papers was simply a cautionary measure for my 
own protection. Not so with the Seal. That was a 
symbol of the Executive authority, and although de- 
void of intrinsic material value, was hallowed by a sen- 
timent which forbade its surrender to unauthorized 
hands. 

"Afterwards, whilst I was in Washington vainly 
seeking the interposition of the Supreme Court, a for- 
mal, written demand was made upon me by Gen. Ruger 
for a return of these articles, with which I declined to 
comply. 

"The books and papers I herewith transmit to your 

27 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

Excellency, that they may resume their places among- 
the archives of the State. With them I also deliver 
to you the Seal of the Executive Department. I derive 
high satisfaction from the reflection that it has never 
been desecrated by the grasp of a military usurper's 
hand, never been prostituted to authenticate official 
misdeeds of an upstart pretender. Unpolluted as it 
came to me, I gladly place it in the hands of a worthy 
son of Georgia, her freely chosen Executive, my first 
legitimate successor." 

The courage and integrity of Gov. Jenkins were fully 
appreciated by the legislature then in session, and they 
enthusiastically endorsed his conduct in a series of res- 
olutions; a fac-simile of the Great Seal, wrought in 
solid gold, was presented to him in the name of the 
grateful people whose rights he had so bravely defend- 
ed. The gold seal had the words "In Arduis Fidelis" 
engraved upon its face. Words were never more de- 
scriptive of character, and to-day they are carved upon 
his monument. 

Gov. Jenkins was nearly seventy years of age when 
he received this testimonial from Georgia. In accept- 
ing it, he said: "I would not exchange it for star or 
garter, or other badge of knighthood — nor yet for high- 
est patent of nobility ever bestowed by king upon 
subject." 

As Judge of the Supreme Court and Governor of 
Georgia his record was bright and stainless, and the 
annals of Greece and Rome can show no finer example 
of matchless fidelity ! One of the most glorious chap- 
ters in the history of this proud commonwealth, is the 
fearless patriotism of Charles J. Jenkins, the hero of 
the reconstruction period. 



'^a 



COSTUMES AND PARADES. 

(From Kuklux Klan, or Invisible Empire, by Mrs. S. E. F. Rose.) 

The fantastic costumes were intended to work upon 
the superstitious fears of the negroes. No special in- 
structions were given as to the color or makeup of 
these costumes, and each Kuklux could give full play to 
his fancy in this regard, their aim being always to make 
them as grotesque as possible, so the costumes varied 
in different Klans. However, the robes always covered 
the entire body, and sometimes consisted merely of a 
sheet, but white was always the favorite color, as it 
carried out the idea that the Kuklux were ghosts or 
spirits. The horses were also covered with a mantle, 
usually of white. A fiery red cloth stitched across the 
breast, a mask of white cloth, a high conical hat, form- 
ed the garb of a typical Kuklux, and when mounted on 
a white steed, the vision was complete. Of course, 
beneath these robes we had rubber suits made, just the 
shape of men, pliant and strong. Each rubber would 
hold thirteen buckets (the old fashioned wooden kind) 
of water. These rubber, man-shaped bags were lightly 
strapped to our bodies, and rested in front of us, on our 
saddles. At the pedal extremities were faucets, by 
which we could turn the water out as soon as we had 
filled them. Just under our chins was a tolerable stiff 
funnel, that served as a head, of our rubber man bag. 
There were several small tubes in this funnel that per- 
mitted the air to escape, as we seemingly drank the 
buckets of water offered. The air escaping from these 
tubes would sound exactly like the steam escaping from 
an over-heated boiler, and could be heard for a hun- 
dred feet or more. 

Another favorite device to scare the negroes, was to 
wear false heads and hands. In this instance, the robe 
would be pulled up over their own heads, and the false 
skull placed on top, and when asking the negro for a 
drink of water the Kuklux would say, "Here, Sambo, 
hold my head while I drink this water." On being 
handed the skull the negro would scream, and take to 
the woods, thoroughly convinced that he had seen the 
ghost of his dead master. When the false hand was 
used, the Kuklux would proffer to shake hands, leav- 
ing the false hand with the negro as a souvenir to car- 
ry terror to his soul. 

2d 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

KUKLUX STORIES. 

("Uncle Wash," in Kuklux Klan, or Invisible Empire.) 

"De niggers wuz all down to the meetin' house, 
holdin' one of dese heah destracted meetin's. De moon 
wux ashinin', when we seed fru de church winders some 
ghost-men on some ghost-hosses comin' outen de woods, 
one behind de yudder. Dey come slow an' solum-like, 
an' dat night I seed my fust Kuklux, an' ebery nigger 
dar seed um, too, an' dey nebber will forgit um. Dem 
black niggers was skeered so bad dat night, dey turned 
white, an' de kinks come outen dey hair. Den de lead- 
er, he rid up to de church do' an' de niggers all said, 
'Hit's de angel on de fiery steed,' but I said, 'No, hit's 
Ole Massa dat waz kilt in de war.' Den de ghost-man, 
in a low, deep voice, an' pinting' wid his long, bony 
finger at de watah-bucket, said, 'A drink, please; I 
haint had no watah since I was kilt in de fust battle o' 
Manassas.' 'Gawd, I sed so, hit's Ole Marster done 
riz from de grave. Niggers, quit yo' lyin' an' yo' mean- 
ness, an' prepare to meet yo' Gawd.' " 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 

"The capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlan- 
ta under the domineering influence of carpetbag gov- 
ernment, controlled by military dictation." 

No mo' Monday mornin' ; 

No mo' hoein' in de cornfield ; 

No mo' waitin' on de white folks." 

When the war ended, the sorriest generals the Yan- 
kees had were appointed governors of the conquered 
Southern provinces. They were suited to this special 
kind of work. Georgia, for instance, was lorded over 
by the John Pope, whose "headquarters were in the 
saddle," and who was reputed to be the biggest hum- 
bug in the Northern army. Ruger preceded him, then 
followed Meade, and after him followed a scandal. 
After this came the Carpetbagger, Bullock, succeeded 
by another scandal. 

The Congressional Reconstruction Convention, which 
was held in Atlanta, is termed as the rag-tag-and- 
bobtail convention by Joel Chandler Harris. 

30 



EXTRACTS FROM "THE WAR-TIME JOURNAL OF 
A COUNTRY GIRL," BY ELIZA FRANCES AN- 
DREWS. 

Gen. Wild has left off his murder cases for the pres- 
ent, and turned his attention to more lucrative business 
—that everlasting bank robbery. Some ten thousand 
dollars have been recovered from negroes in whose 
hands in was found, and about a dozen of the most 
respectable citizens of the county are imprisoned in 
the court house under accusation of being implicated. 
Among them is the wife of our old camp-meeting 
friends, Mr. Nish (Dionysius) Chenault, who entertain- 
ed Mrs. Davis and her party at his home out on the 
Danburg road as she was on her way here from Abbe- 
ville. She (Mrs. Chenault) has a little young baby 
with her, and they have imprisoned Mr. Chenault's 
sister, too, and Sallie, his oldest daughter.* The people 
of Washington wanted to entertain these ladies in their 
homes and give bail for their appearance to stand trial, 
but that bloodhound. Wild, would not permit them to 
leave the courthouse. He tied up Mr. Chenault by the 
thumbs and kept him hanging for an hour trying to 
extort from him treasure that he did not possess. He 
is a large, fat man, weighing nearly three hundred 
pounds, so the torture must have been excruciating. 
His son and brother were tied up, too, the latter with 
his hands behind him, and he was suffered to hand till 
they were stretched above his head, and he fainted 
from the pain. And all this on the lying accusation of 

a negro! 

* * * 

If the Yankees cashier Wild, it will give me more 
respect for them than I ever thought it possible to feel. 
He is the most atracious villain extant. Before bring- 
ing the Chenaults to town, he went into the country to 
their home, and tortured all the men till Mr. Nish 
Chenault fainted three times under the operation. Then 



*The accusation against them was that they had shared in the 
plunder of a box of jewels that the women of the South had con- 
tributed for building a Confederate gunboat, and their own per- 
sonal ornaments were "confiscated" under this pretext. The box 
of jewels was among the assets of the Confederate treasury that 
had been plundered near the village. The fate of these orna- 
ments, contributed with such loyal devotion, will probably never 
be known. 

81 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

he shut up the two ladies, Mrs. Chenault and Sallie, in 
a room, to be searched by a negro woman, with a Yan- 
kee officer standing outside the door to make sure that 
it was thoroughly done. * * Disappointed at 
not finding any other plunder, the Yankees took their 
watches and family jewelry, and $150 in gold that Mr. 
Chenault had saved through the war. I have this from 
Mrs. Reese, who got it from Sallie Chenault herself 
after they were released. After searching the ladies, 
they kept them in the woods all day, while they search- 
ed and plundered the house. Miss Chenault says she 
doesn't suppose there was much left in the house worth 
having when the Yankees and negroes had gone 
through it. I believe all the ladies have now been re- 
leased by Col. Drayton, except Mrs. Nish Chenault, 
who is detailed on a charge of assault and battery for 
slapping one of her own negro women who was inso- 
lent to her ! 



The Augusta Transcript, was suppressed and its 
editor imprisoned merely for publishing the obituary 
of a southern soldier, in which it was stated that he 
died of disease "contracted in the icy prisons of the 
North." 



Aug. 20, Tuesday. — * * In the case of Mr. 
Rhodes, near Greensborough, one of Mr. Rhodes's 
"freedmen" lurked in the woods around his plantation, 
committing such depredations that finally he appealed 
to the garrison at Greensborough for protection. The 
commandant ordered him to arrest the negro and bring 
him to Greensborough for trial. With the assistance 
of some neighbors, Mr. Rhodes succeeded in making 
the arrest late one evening. He kept the culprit at his 
house that night, intended to take him to town next 
day, but in the meantime, a body of negroes marched to 
the village and informed the officer that Mr. Rhodes 
and his friend were making ready to kill their prisoners 
at midnight. A party of bluecoats was at once dis- 
patched to the Rhodes plantation, where they arrived 

32 



"WAR TIME JOURNAL OF A COUNTRY GIRL" 

after the family had gone to bed. Without waiting for 
admission they fired two shots into the house, one of 
which killed Mrs. Rhodes's brother. They left her 
alone with the dead man, on a plantation full of inso- 
lent negroes, taking the rest of the men to Greens- 
borough, where the Yankees and negroes united in 
swearing that the Rhodes party had nred upon them. 
Mr. Rhodes was carried to Augusta, and on the point of 
being hanged, when a hitch in the evidence saved his 
life. 



33 



OBSERVATIONS AND COMMENTS. 

(By James Callaway.) 
DAN W. VOORHEES. 

One of the greatest orators America ever produced 
was Dan W. Voorhees, of Indiana. As a Democrat, he 
was as brave, outspoken as eloquent Ben Hill. 

One of the greatest of his speeches was delivered in 
Congress March 23, 1872. His theme was the "Plunder 
of Eleven States." 

He delivered two special speeches in Congress 
against Bullock's efforts to reopen the reconstruction 
of Georgia. They were a wonderful portrayal of what 
was Bullock's intent and purpose. 

Then, too, he delivered a great speech against the 
Reconstruction measures as proposed by Thad Stephens 
and his noted committee of fifteen. 'That was a mas- 
terful oration. He foresaw what was coming and 
pleaded for living States, not dead provinces. 

But the following are excerpts from his speech on 
the "Plunder of Eleven States": 

"Sir, the absolute destruction of free institutions 
from the Potomac to the Rio Grande commenced with 
the earliest dawn of peace. Sherman received John- 
ston's surrender upon the precise basis upon which the 
war had been prosecuted at every stage. He stipulated 
that the soldiers of the South should lay down the arms 
of unequal warfare, return to their States, whose ex- 
istence had not been denied, and resume the pursuits 
of industry where they had left off with slavery abol- 
ished. (That was Lincoln's idea of restoration and 
pacification.) He had more than a thousand prece- 
dents for his conduct in the recorded action of this gov- 
ernment. Both branches of Congress had sustained his 
view by voluminous legislation. 

"The terms which Sherman gave to the fallen foe 
had often been tendered to that foe before he fell ; but 
they were madly thrust aside in the hour of victory 
and the general himself denounced far and wide as a 
traitor to his country. The party in power (after Lin- 
coln's death) broke with shameless haste its sacred 
faith and clamored with wild ferocity against the hero 
of the march to the sea, because he had believed the 
position of Congress was true, regarding the States in 
rebellion, but still in the Union. The hue and cry 

34 



DAN W. VOORHEES 

against Sherman was raised against him as if he was a 
fleeing fugitive from justice. That memorable and dis- 
graceful outburst cannot be covered by oblivion. It 
more resembled the enraged scream of a beast of prey- 
about to be baffled out of its victim than the reasonable 
expression of human beings." 

Do not fail to catch the point. Sherman's terms were 
based on the Lincoln idea, and that of his party, during 
his life. This great outburst against Gen. Sherman 
was because of an intended second invasion of the 
South, under "reconstruction," and not "restoration," 
or, as Joe Johnston expressed it in his farewell address, 
"pacification." 

But, continues Voorhees: "The victim, however, was 
surrendered to the clutches of an inflamed and victor- 
ious party, and the work of demolition was at once 
commenced; that, too, when not an armed foe existed 
in all the South from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. 
From turret to foundation you tore down the govern- 
ments of eleven States. You left not one stone upon 
another. You rent all their local laws and machinery 
into fragments and trampled upon their ruins. Not a 
vestige of their farmer construction remained. Their 
pillars, their rafters, their beams, and all their deep- 
laid corners, the work of a wise and devoted generation 
of the past, were all dragged away, and the sites where 
they once stood left naked for the erection of new and 
dift'erent structures. You remove the rubbish, pushed 
the army into the vacant ground, established provis- 
ional government as you would over territory just ac- 
quired by conquest from a foreign power, and clothed 
brigadiers and major-generals with extraordinary func- 
tions as Governors. 

"Such was the beginning of the present organization 
— those odious and unsightly fabrics which now cum- 
ber the earth, and which stand (1872) as the open, 
reeking and confessed shambles of corruption, pollu- 
tion and revolthig misrule. They embrace not one sin- 
gle element of popular consent. They are the hideous 
offspring of your own unnatural and unlawful force 
and violence. The great body of the people of that un- 
fortunate section had no more share in the rebuilding 
of their local government than the Seapoys of the East 

35 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

Indies in the affairs of the British Empire. They were 
excluded from all participation by the most elaborate 
and minute schemes of legislative proscription of which 
history makes any record. 

"The first duty of the provisional governments which 
you established was to call conventions to frame new 
Constitutions for these old States, and prepare them 
for admission into that Union from which you had 
sworn so often and solemnly that no State could ever 
withdraw. These conventions were provided for by 
laws enacted here. The number and the quality of the 
delegates to them were here specified. Who should be 
eligible and who ineligible was your work, and not the 
work of the people who were to be governed. You not 
only said who should be elected, but you likewise deter- 
mined who should elect them. You fixed the qualifica- 
tions and color of the voters. You purged the ballot 
box of the intelligence and the virtue on which alone 
popular liberty can be safely founded, and you admit- 
ted in their stead the suffrage of the most ignorant and 
unqualified race now inhabiting the globe. 

"Proscription and ostracism are the leading elements 
of every State government in the South. Intellect and 
virtue, public and private worth, spotless character, 
splendid attainments, graceful culture, and the expe- 
rience and wisdom of the age were all passed by under 
the reconstruction of violence and fraud. 

"Those who during the conflict between the sections 
were clothed with the slightest responsibility or charg- 
ed with the smallest official duty by those with whom 
their destiny and their homes had fallen, were marked 
by the blight of ineligibility, and, like the leper of old, 
it was made a crime for the people to again reach 
forth to them the hand of friendship or support. 
He who gave a cup of cold water or a crust of bread to 
his thirsty and famished son, under arms for a cause 
which he believed to be right, and for which he was 
willing to die, was branded with dishonor, and driven 
out from the councils of his countrymen. The loving 
mother who sheltered her weary and wounded boy, 
laid him in his own familiar bed at home once more, 
kissed his feverish lips, wiped away the gathering dews 
of death, and with broken heart closed his eyes forever, 

36 



DAN W. VOORHEES 

was condemned for these acts of angelic ministering, 
and incurred the penalties of confiscation. 

"A more sweeping and universal exclusion of all the 
benefits, trusts, rights, honors and control of govern- 
ment was never enacted against a whole people, with- 
out respect to age or sex, in the annals of the human 
race. * * * Every fact I here proclaim is con- 
tained in the laws and in the recorded transactions of 
this government, and will constitute, 'after some time is 
past,' and passions of the present subsided, the most 
frightful and crushing arraignment which history ever 
summed up against a ruling party. * * * 

"But now, as the ghastly and hideous results of the 
Reconstruction policy of the Republican party appear 
on every square mile of that oppressed and plundered 
section, is starts back with horror and absolutely dis- 
claims its own offspring — the fruits of its own unholy 
rapine and lust. With pale lips and affrighted mein it 
ejaculates: 'Thuu canst not say I did it!' But the deeds 
which it has committed are imperishable infamy, and 
they will not down, nor can all the waters of the ocean 
wash away their guilty stains." 

Thus will the future Belgian historian write of Ger- 
man's destruction and pillage of helpless Belgium. 

This speech, the "Plunder of Eleven States," was de- 
livered in the House of Representatives in March, 1872. 
It took a brave man to do it. Voorhees was the Ben Hill 
of the North. In this speech he gave a brief history of 
the reconstruction of each of the eleven States which 
seceded. After showing where the responsibility lodg- 
ed during the process of pulling down and rebuilding 
the local State governments, he then exposed the re- 
sults to each State. He spoks for Georgia first, and 
soon I will relate what he said about Georgia and her 
reconstruction under Bullock and the Federal generals. 

LET GEORGIA SPEAK FIRST 

From Daniel W. Voorhees' great speech on the 
"Plunder of Eleven States," delivered in the House of 
Representatives March 23, 1872, extracts have been 
presented showing the animus of "Reconstruction" and 
the overthrow of the State governments of the Southern 

37 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

States. When it came to the detail of that work of de- 
struction, he had Georgia to speak first. 

"Let the great State of Georgia speak first. * * 
You permitted her to stand up and start in her new 
career, but seeing some flaw in your handiwork, you 
again destroyed and again reconstructed her State gov- 
ernment. You clung to her throat; you battered her 
features out of shape and recognition, determined that 
your party should have undisputed possession and en- 
joyment of her offices, her honors and her substance. 
Your success was complete. She was prostrate and 
unarmed. 

"The victim was worthy of the contest by which she 
was handed over, bound hand and foot, to the rapacity 
of robbers. She was one of the original thirteen. Her 
soil had been made red and wet with the blood of the 
Revolution. But she contained what was far dearer to 
the despoilers than the relics of her fame. Her prolific 
and unbounded resources inflamed their desires. Hence 
the second invasion. * * * Georgia was the fairest 
and most fertile field that ever excited the hungry cu- 
pidity of the political pirate and the official plunderer. 
She was full of those mighty substances out of which 
the taxes of a people are always wrung by the grasp- 
ing hand of licentious power. She was the most splen- 
did quarry in all history for the vultures, the kites and 
carrion-crows that darken the air at the close of a ter- 
rible war, and whet their beaks over the fallen; and 
they speedily settled down upon her in devouring flocks 
and droves. 

"When the calamities of war broke upon the coun- 
try in 1861, Georgia was free from debt. Her people 
felt none of the burdens of taxation. Taxes through- 
out her widespread borders were trifles light as air. 
The burdens of government were easy upon her citi- 
zens. Her credit stood high. And when the war 
closed she was still free from indebtedness. 

"Now look at her today (1872) after six years of su- 
preme control by the Republican party. You took her 
into your hands, encumbered with no liabilities, and 
now you present her, to the horror of the world, loaded 
with debts which reach the appalling sum of $50,000,- 
000. The mind recoils, filled with indignation, in con- 

38 



LET GEORGIA SPEAK FIRST 

templating this fearful and gigantic crime. It has no 
parallel in the annals of all nations and the ages of 
mankind until the ascendancy of the Republican party 
and its inauguration of its Reconstruction policy over 
the State governments of the South. And the crime 
against Georgia is of kindred magnitude inflicted by 
the same party on the other Southern States. Your 
v^ork of destruction began in 1868 — a year more fatal 
to the interests of Georgia than the scourge of pesti- 
lence, war or famine. The most venal and abandoned 
body of men ever known outside the boundaries of 
penal colonies, State prisons, or Southern Reconstruc- 
tion, was chosen as the Legislature of Georgia, not by 
the people, but by virtue of a system, which you enact- 
ed and put in force. 

"With them, too, came into office one who speedily 
secured a national reputation, and became a controll- 
ing power in your national councils. At one time Ru- 
fus B. Bullock dictated the legislation of Congress and 
the actions of the executive in regard to the great and 
ancient commonwealth that was cursed by his pres- 
ence. It was his potent finger that pointed out the 
pathway which led to your second assault upon her 
State government, and it was his voice and his presence 
in and about these halls that commanded and cheered 
you to the breach. You even spoke of him for the ex- 
alted position of Vice-President of the United States. 
* * He was a successful, conspicuous and bril- 

liant specimen of your system. * * * With 
such a Governor and such a Legislature in perfect har- 
mony, morally and politically, a career of villainy at 
once opened on the soil of Georgia which will go down 
to posterity without a peer or rival in the evil and in- 
famous administrations of the world. The official ex- 
istence of his Legislature lasted two years, commencing 
November, 1868. The Governor served three years 
and then absconded with his gains. * * * 

"The facts proclaim the pillage of the State. The 
reports of the comptroller-general of Georgia show that 
for eight years, commencing with 1855 and ending in 
1862, there was expended for the pay of members and 
officers of all her Legislatures during that entire period 
the sum of $866,385.53. During the two years of the 

39 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

Republican Legislature elected in 1868, the report of 
the comptroller-general shows that there was expended 
for the pay of its members and officers the startling sum 
of $979,055, nearly $1,000,000. One Legislature cost 
$112,669.47 more than the Legislatures of eight previ- 
ous years in the single matter of its own expenses. * 

* * The record discloses one hundred and four 
clerks in the employ of this body under Republican 
management — one clerk for every two legislators. 

"There is another high-handed outrage. Two hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars had accrued from poll 
taxes for schools, set aside for education. Before this 
Legislature adjourned it was all swept away. Not a 
dollar left. They took the children's money and put 
it in their pockets. They robbed the rising generation 
of both races. 

"The hand of the spoliator, at times in the history of 
the world, has taken consecrated vessels from the altar 
and plundered the sanctuary of God. Even the hallow- 
ed precincts of the grave have sometimes been invaded 
and the coffin rifled of its contents; but human villainy 
has sounded no lower depth than was here fathomed in 
stealing the very books of knowledge from the youth 
of the land." 

Here the speaker gave account of the fraudulent rail- 
road transactions, defrauding the State ; and the great 
frauds of Foster Blodgett in the management of the 
State road ; of the pardons granted and the graft there- 
of, pardoning three hundred and forty-six out of four 
hundred and twenty-six who made application. Con- 
cluding about Georgia, Mr. Voorhees said: "I must 
now take leave of Georgia, her plundered treasury, her 
oppressed taxpayers, her railroad schemes of robbery, 
her squandered school funds, and her mocked, insulted 
and baffled courts of justice. Other impoverished fields 
cry to us for redress. Let us hearken to the story of 
each one's woes. I now turn to South Carolina, once 
the proud land of Marion and Sumter, now the most 
wretched State that the sun shines on in its course 
through the heavens. 

THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH AMENDMENTS 

When the war closed all was chaos in Georgia. An- 

40 



FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH AMENDMENTS 

drew Johnson was on Lincoln's line, somewhat, of res- 
toration, considering us in rebellion, but not out of the 
Union. 

He issued on June 17, 1865, his proclamation by 
which Hon. James Johnson was appointed provisional 
Governor, and it was his duty to call a convention, the 
electors to be amnested voters. The convention met at 
Milledgeville on Oct. 28, 1865, composed of 285 dele- 
gates, Herchel V. Johnson presiding. This convention 
was eager for Georgia to resume her full relations ; and, 
urged by the provisional Governor and President John- 
son, and by pressure from Congress, accepted the thir- 
teenth amendment which abolished slavery ; invested 
negroes with all legal and civil rights except suffrage, 
and repealed the ordinance of secession, repudiated the 
State's war debt, including bonds, treasury notes and 
other obligations, causing great losses to many. But 
President Johnson and Secretary Seward deemed this 
necessary to loyal restoration. So the thirteenth amend- 
ment was ratified. But not the fourteenth. 

As provided, the General Assembly met at Milledge- 
ville on Dec. 4, 1865. In his message to the Legislature 
Gov. Charles J. Jenkins made a masterly argument 
against the fourteenth amendment. It was discussed 
and considered. A committee was appointed to report 
on it. Col. R. J. Moses wrote the report, which thus 
concludes: "Resolved, That the Legislature of Geor- 
gia declines to ratify the fourteenth article to the Con- 
stitution of the United States." Their reasons were 
elaborate. (See I. W. Avery's history of Georgia.) 

Hon. Henry G. Turner, so honored by the whole coun- 
try, in "Why the Solid South," says: "The General 
Assembly under Jenkins refused to ratify the fourteenth 
amendment chiefly because it imposed political disabil- 
ities upon the leading men of the State for no other 
reason than that they had served the people in the 
various positions to which they had been appointed or 
elected." It made our own people the ignominious au- 
thors of the disfranchisement of their own citizens. Its 
passage, however, was the demand of Congress, and 
our refusal was the pretext of repulsing from the Sen- 
ate Alex. Stephens and Herschel V. Johnson. From 
this time on Georgia was treated as a conquered prov- 

41 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

ince, and for like reason so were the other Southern 
States. The South could not bring itself to be a party 
to the disfranchisement of her own sons. 

Our people seemed to rely on the Sherman-Johnson 
surrender treaty. But Congress heeded not that. Con- 
gress simply handed us back the fourteenth amend- 
ment with negro suffrage added to it. A full state- 
ment of the temper of our people regarding this four- 
teenth amendment can be found in Herbert Fielder's 
Life of Joseph E. Brown, page 420. Such men as H. V. 
Johnson, Ben Hill, Bob Toombs, Howell Cobb, Alex. 
Stephens and Linton Stephens strenuously opposed it 
and sustained the position of Gov, Jenkins and his Leg- 
islature. The people of the State endorsed this view. 
The speeches of Ben Hill, Bob Toombs, Howell Cobb 
and other distinguished Georgians at the great "Bush 
Arbor" meeting in Atlanta on July 23, 1868, expressed 
the sentiment of the people concerning this amendment. 
Gov. Brown advised acquiescence, saying, "Better agree 
with thine adversary quickly." 

On July 16, 1866, Congress enlarged the provisions 
and powers of the Freedman's Bureau, giving the of- 
ficers of it military jurisdiction over all cases. Every 
bureau agent was a court with military authority, and 
no appeal from his decisions. These agents were every- 
where. No town escaped them. Great graft was prac- 
ticed. Upon negro requests, men were brought before 
such agents on mere pretexts to extort fines. All this 
exasperated the white people, and intensified their op- 
position to these reconstruction measures. 

They could not consent to be a party to them. 

The noted committee on Reconstruction was com- 
posed of fifteen bitter enemies of the South. Thad 
Stephens chairman. Congress referred all politicl ques- 
tions to them. They fathered the acts of Reconstruc- 
tion, 

On March 2, 1867, Congress declared no legal State 
government existed in Virginia, North Carolina, South 
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Tex- 
as and Louisiana, and passed the ever-memorable "Re- 
construction Acts," as outlined by Thad Stephens and 
his committee. The South was divided into military 
districts, and the acts declared no Constitution of a 

42 



FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH AMENDMENTS 

State would be acepted by Congress without absolute 
acquiescence in these acts, and that all conventions 
should recognize electors without regard to race, color 
or previous condition, and also demanded the ratifica- 
tion of the fourteenth amendment. 

By operation of these acts Georgia was reduced to a 
military district, in which the will of the commanding 
general was supreme in all things — absolute distator. 
No appeal from his orders. These acts also enlarged 
the list of disfranchised Georgians, and fixed the status 
of suffrage for each State without any distinction as to 
color or race. See "Solid South," page 119. 

Under these acts Gen. Pope ordered a registration 
of voters, negroes included. The whites had become 
so exasperated that large numbers did not register who 
were eligible. The negroes all registered. Thousands 
of whites were proscribed. 

The election for the convention was opened on Oct. 
29 and polls kept open for five days under management 
of the bureau and army oflficers. Negroes were permit- 
ted to act as managers, and many negroes voted five 
times. By orders from military headquarters the con- 
vention was declared carried, and delegates of the Re- 
publican party elected. See "Solid South." The del- 
egates were ordered to meet not at the old Capitol at 
Milledgeville, but at the Atlanta by the commanding 
general. 

This Reconstruction convention met at Atlanta Dec. 
9, 1867. It had 170 delegates. Under the non-acting 
policy of the whites generally, it was a motley crew. 
However, there were a sprinkling of good Democrats, 
such as H. V. M. Miller, Judge David Irwin, A. W. Hol- 
combe, L. N. Trammell, J. D. Waddell, and some better 
class Republicans like A. G. Foster, Madison Bell, H. 
K. McKoy and T. P. Saffold. But as a rule it was a 
queer set of carpetbaggers and negroes. "On the 
whole," says I. W. Avery in his life of Joseph E. Brown, 
"it was an odious body. It was a convention incarnat- 
ing the idea of force and conquest, based upon negro 
supremacy and white disfranchisement. The body 
symbolized conquest, the bottom rail on top. The 
State seemed ransacked to get a mongrel delegation." 
Such was the "Reconstruction" convention. No aspect 

43 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

of compliance so far by the people. The "RESOLUTE 
REJECT." 

Gov. Jenkins was holding forth at the old Capitol. 
Gen. Meade had now superseded Gen. Pope, and, in 
need of funds for delegates, early in January, 1868, or- 
dered Gov. Jenkins to issue warrant for $40,000. Gov. 
Jenkins gave legal reason for not doing so. Meade at 
once deposed him and "detailed" Gen. Ruger to be 
Governor. The writer has always thought Gov. Jen- 
kins made a mistake. The will of Meade now was law 
by the Reconstruction acts. 

These Reconstruction acts, the outrages of the Freed- 
men's Bureau, the usurpation of all power and author- 
ity by the military commanders, aroused Ben Bill, and 
he wrote those celebrated "Notes on the Situation." He 
arraigned Congress with all his wonderful rhetoric. 
The people, aroused, held a voluntary convention of 
those not willing to reconstruct the State of the congres- 
sional plan in Macon on Dec. 5, 1867. Two hundred 
and thirty-five delegates were present, such men as 
Thomas Hardeman, Jr., Dan Hughes, David E. Butler, 
Phil Cook, Georgie A. Mercer, T. M. Furlow, P. W. 
Alexander, E. H. Pottle, J. J. Gresham and I. W. Avery 
were in the convention. They made vehement protest. 
Ben. Hill was president of the convention. They op- 
posed the fourteenth amendment. No assent here to 
the demands of Congress. That Macon gathering was 
the natural and honorable rebellion of a virtuous peo- 
ple's best impulses against indignity and wrong. But 
the "Reconstruction" convention in Atlanta went on its 
way, regardless. 

Gen. Meade issued orders for the election to be held 
April 20, 1868, to ratify the Constitution. This Con- 
stitution was the work of delegates many of whom were 
not entitled to vote ; the whites largely refusing to go 
to the polls. This Constitution had many clauses to at- 
tract voters, large homesteads, and many things after- 
wards annulled as in conflict with the Constitution of 
the United States. Gen. Meade and his military board 
had full control of all election returns. It was a mil- 
itary affair all the way through. It was coercive recon- 
struction. Gen. Meade declared Bullock elected over 
John B. Gordon. 

44 



THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT 

On July 4, 1868, the new General Assembly met un- 
der orders from Gen. Meade, and Bullock, the governor- 
elect, relying on the military edict, assumed the chair, 
and proceeded to organize the two bodies. How was it 
done? See "Why the Solid South," and I. W. Avery's 
history of Georgia. After organization Bullock inform- 
ed the General Assembly that they were REQUIRED 
by act of Congress, June 25, 1868, to ratify the four- 
teenth amendment. Here was explicit demand from 
Congress. As now organized the General Assembly 
was Republican with a large majority. Bullock put 
through this requirement of Congress before the As- 
sembly was purged of the negro members, as was done 
later, the purging of which caused trouble, and Bullock 
hied to Washington for increased power, as will be re- 
counted in my next and also showing how he got Con- 
gress to force upon us the fifteenth amendment. Yet 
Mrs. Felton tells us that it was not Bullock and his pals, 
but our own folks who did it, even "electing that Leg- 
islature to accept the fourteenth and fifteenth amend- 
ments." 

Everybody knows the Meade and Bulloch Legislature 
had nothing to do with the thirteenth amendment. The 
Jenkins Legislature disposed of that. 

THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT 

The reader will recall that in my last article I left 
Gov. Bullock announcing to his reconstruction Legisla- 
ture that they were required by act of Congress, June 
25, 1868, to ratify the fourteenth amendment, nolens 
volens. 

What was the personnel of that Legislature? 

L W. Avery, in his history of Georgia, says: There 
is nothing like it in the annals of Georgia. Its deliber- 
ations and acts were a symbolical epitome of the vari- 
egated reconstruction that sired it, yet there was a good 
sprinkling of fine material. * * * Bullock him- 
self called it in his inaugural address 'that patriotic 
body — the Union Republican party.' " 

By military orders and by virtue of special congres- 
sional legislation the negroes were already exercising 
the privilege of suffrage, voting for the reconstruction 
convention and for the Bullock Legislature. 

45 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

The State was now entitled to representation in Con- 
gress and Joshua Hill and H. V. M. Miller were elected 
Senators, but not admitted until 1871 — kept out for 
some two years to await further "reconstruction" in 
store for us. It came about this way. 

After the Legislature was fully organized, under the 
Meade supervision, twenty-seven negro members were 
expelled — declared ineligible, the Legislature claiming 
the right to decide on qualification of its members. 
None of the members, however, had taken the test oath. 

In a few days the white candidates were seated in 
their stead. This was subsequent, however, to the vote 
on the ratification of the fourteenth amendment. Bul- 
lock got mad — said the Legislature had no right to 
judge of the qualifications of its own members. Bullock 
appealed to Meade, but Meade differed on that issue 
from Bullock, so Meade referred the question to Gen. 
Grant, who was in Colorado. 

Telegram to Gen. Grant: 

"Headquarters, Atlanta, July 18, 1868. — After exam- 
ining the majority and minority reports carefully, I am 
not disposed to alter the position I have assumed that it 
is the prerogative of each house to judge of the facts 
and the law in cases of members of their houses. I do 
not feel competent to overcome the action of the Legis- 
lature which has conformed to the rules I laid down for 
their guidance. So far as I can ascertain it is personal, 
arising out of contest for the United States senatorship. 

(Signed) "GEORGE MEADE, 

"Major-General." 

Gen. Grant replied : 

"Denver, Col., July 21, 1868. — Gen. Meade's dis- 
patch received. His conclusions are approved. 

"U. S. GRANT." 

The Legislature had now gone home. But when the 
General Assembly met in January, 1869, Gov. Bullock 
in his message stated he had advised Congress that the 
reconstruction acts had not been fully executed, and 
that members of the Legislature should be required to 
take the ironclad oath, and that members had no right 
to decide their own qualifications. He further demand- 
ed that persons returned as elected in April, 1868, 
should be reassembled, test oath be enforced, and the 

46 



THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT 

colored members be restored, and the body thus organ- 
ized should decide upon the eligibility of excluded 
members. The Legislature refused to do this. 

Then Bullock went to Washington and put the case 
before Congress. Dan W. Voorhees defeated his 
scheme. But Bullock was not to be cast down. Thad 
Stevens was dead, but old Beast Butler was now chair- 
man of the notorious committee of fifteen, and Bullock 
went to him. Butler had influence with Gen. Grant, 
now President. So in December, 1869, President Grant 
sent in a special message to Congress to reopen the case 
and accede to Bullock's demands. And on Dec. 22, 
1869, President Grant reversed himself and approved 
"the act to promote the reconstruction of Georgia," 
which act was framed according to the plan outlined 
by Gov. Bullock, and the act had a requirement for the 
Legislature to ratify the fifteenth amendment. More 
reconstruction. 

Dan W. Voorhees, the great Democrat of Indiana, 
made a great speech again to save Georgia this humil- 
iation. He exposed Bullock's purpose with prophetic 
accuracy. It is one of the great speeches of the world, 
but he lost his election to the Senate because of his pro- 
test. Ben Butler and Bullock won. Gen. Grant stood 
with Meade in July, 1868. But the committe of fifteen 
and Bullock's appeal to reopen the case had Grant to 
change his policy tow^ard the South. By this new act 
Bullock was authorized to summons all the persons 
elected to the General Assembly as were elected in 
April, 1868, under Meade's proclamation. This Bul- 
lock did, calling them back to Atlanta on Jan. 10,1870. 
Conly was again elected president. The House was 
organized by A. L. Harris, of New England, he wide of 
girth known as "Fatty" Harris. His will was law. 
(See Solid South, page 132.) He had the original roll 
made by Gen. Meade called. 

This new act, secured by Bullock, provided for mil- 
itary, and Gen. Meade, now obnoxious to Bullock and 
Ben Butler, was removed and Gen. Terry put in com- 
mand. The eligibility, or ineligibility, of members was 
now determined by Gen. Terry and "Fatty' Harris and 
a military board of officers. The House then elected a 
Speaker and on the next day the names of those who 

47 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

had been excluded were, by military orders, read to 
the House. The House rebelled. 

But Gen. Terry threw his sword into the scale, and 
the pets of Bullock were seated. This act "to promote 
the reconstruction of Georgia," obtained by Bullock 
through the influence of Gen. Butler, Gen. Grant approv- 
ing, REQUIRED the Legislature to ratify the fifteenth 
amendment, and Bullock and Terry had this done. Yet 
Mrs. Felton said Terry had no hand in it. 

Of this transaction, Henry G. Turner, in "Why the 
Solid South," says: 

"This accomplished, Bullock had triumphed; the 
State was delivered into his hands. The carpetbaggers, 
Southern Republicans, scalawags and negro members 
formed the majority of this Legislature. Pleasant re- 
lations existed between them and the Governor, for he 
had given them great power and golden opportunities. 
The taxpayers of Georgia had voted almost to a man 
against the persons who composed the majority of the 
Legislature, so odious in history. To these taxpayers 
this Legislature and those controlling it were objects of 
general execration. If they had not been upheld by 
military power they would have been carted about with 
placards on their backs, as were the men whom George 
HI, appointed to the Legislature of Massachusetts." 
See "Solid South," page 124. 

Whether wise or unwise our people resisted the four- 
teenth and fifteenth amendments, protested vehemently 
and as it were done let it be the deed of Congress and 
its agents, and not our willing deed. 

As Alexander H. Stephens said in his War Between 
the States, page 665, "We cannot resist, or offer violent 
opposition, but in the name of all that is sacred, do not 
let us attempt to GOVERN OURSELVES— not as we 
see fit — but as our conquerors see fit. That would be 
their government at least, without any of its responsi- 
bility. By every consideration, then, we should not by 
giving these measures a formal approval, put ourselves 
in the position of being told, when the disastrous con- 
sequences follow, which will inevitably ensue, that it 
were we, ourselves, and not they, who brought such 
ruin upon the country." 

It were THEY, and not WE, who did it. Yet one has 

48 



THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU 

arisen who asserts it were we, and not they, who did it. 
These amendments were the result of coercive "recon- 
struction." Our very "disfranchisement" acts stand as 
a living protest against them ; may they stand forever. 

THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU 

"It has always been a matter of dispute whether good 
or evil predominated in the work of this Freedmen's 
Bureau." The preponderating evil of it, the inexpress- 
ible infamy of it, as practiced, was never a matter of 
"dispute" by those acquainted with the workings of it. 

Only those of the North regarded it as a matter of 
good, as affording the ways and means of alienating 
the negroes from tlieir old owners and organizing them 
into a political body that the South might be Republi- 
canized. This Freedmen's Bureau was the Pandora's 
box. Under its auspices were organized all the "Union 
Leagues," sometimes called "Loyal Leagues." They 
were for "evil and evil only." Oh, those leagues! 

Why did Hilary A, Herbert publish his book, "Why 
the Solid South"? And why did he dedicate it "to the 
business men of the North"? Because the men of the 
North, not understanding the work of Reconstruction, 
the tools of which were the Freedmen's Bureaus, charg- 
ed it upon us of the South that we were "solid" by rea- 
son of our hostility to the Union, and kept together as 
a white man's party from feelings of disloyalty. 

Herbert published his book, "Why the Solid South"? 
to counteract this erroneous impression and to show 
that Reconstruction organized, through the loyal 
leagues of the Freedmen's Bureaus, the negroes into a 
solid Republican asset, and that the whites of the South 
became "solid" from the necessities of the case, for 
preservation of their civilization and redemption of 
their States. 

The Freedmen's Bureau was the "constructive force" 
which "adjusted" affairs to the program of turning 
over the States, in the new order of things, to the abso- 
lute control of those whose object was to make the negro 
master in every State. 

On page 11, "Why the Solid South"? Henry G. Tur- 
ner says: "The Freedmen's Bureau interposed be- 
tween farmers and their late slaves, and inaugurated 

49 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

distrust and estrangements where they should have in- 
culcated kindness and sympathy. Martial law and mil- 
itary tribunals displaced the old system of justice and 
jurisprudence," 

On page 118 Mr. Turner again says: "On July 16, 
1866, Congress passed an act extending the provisions 
of an act establishing these Freedmen's Bureau. * * 
* No limit was fixed for the number of their agents, 
and they were to be so far deemed in the military ser- 
vice of the United States as to be under military juris- 
diction, and entitled to military protection of the gov- 
ernment. * * * Every bureau agent was a court 
with military jurisdiction. Such a court was establish- 
ed in every county in the State. These special tribun- 
als were officered by persons who could take the test 
oath, and became the nurseries from which aliens and 
strangers disseminated among the negroes hate and 
rancor towards the white citizens. And Congress on 
July 13, 1866, appropriated $6,887,700 for the fiscal 
year for the support of these bureaus. * * * And 
the administration of the system inevitably provoked 
irritation between the races, tempted the agents to fo- 
ment discords by which their continuance in office could 
be secured." Judge Turner is modest in his recital of 
the wrongs perpetrated on the whites, because, as he 
says, "the study of the details can afford no pleasure 
now to any American citizen." 

It is not difficult to understand why these bureaus 
were things of evil, when it is remembered the part 
they had to play in their political work. They were 
instrumentalities of Congress and of the Thad Stevens 
noted committee of fifteen to Republicanize the South 
through the "scalawag," the carpetbagger and the ne- 
gro, backed by the military commander of the state 
whose will was supreme. The methods employed by 
the bureaus were organization of negroes into "Loyal 
Leagues." No community was free from them. They 
were ubiquitous. They did their work well. They de- 
tached the negroes from the whites. 

At the time of the organization of these leagues by 
the agents of the Freedmen's Bureau Thad Stevens was 
master of the situation. He determined to blot the 
South from the political map, confiscate the property of 

50 



THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU 

its citizens, give it to the negroes, deprive the whites of 
the ballot, conferring it upon their former slaves, and 
send the South's leaders into exile, and turn the States 
over to negro and carpetbag domination. Turn to the 
Congressional Record for 1867 (Globe) and read Thad 
Stevens' confiscation act, House bill No. 29, and his 
speech in its defense. Owing to the great speech of 
Dan W. Voorhees and his influence in the middle West, 
Stevens' confiscation and miscengenation scheme was 
lost by five votes — but only five. The balance of his 
scheme he carried. He, through the Freedmen's Bu- 
reaus, disarmed all the whites, which arms were dis- 
tributed among the negroes, thus placing the "bayonet 
at the breast of every rebel," and placed the ballot in 
the hand of every negro. Through these Freedmen's 
Bureaus he organized the negroes into secret, oath 
bound leagues, the "Union Leagues," in which they 
were drilled in insolence and crime and taught to hate 
their former owners, over whom they were promised 
unlimited dominion. Through these bureaus the mili- 
tary satraps nailed to the door of every court house 
Stevens' proclamation of EQUALITY, and promised 
bayonets to enforce the intermarriage of whites and 
blacks. This led to riots. And as aids to the military 
the negroes were supplied with arms taken from the 
whites and drilled every night at the league rendez- 
vous. Well do some of us recall those night meetings 
and those drills of the negroes, under the protection 
and guidance of the agents of these same Freedmen's 
bureaus. 

Economic adjustment! Read Dan Voorhees' great 
speech on the "Plunder of Eleven States" and behold 
the "economic adjustment" ! A company from England 
bought a large farm near Albany, Ga., to grow cotton, 
as it was so high. After faithful trial, they had to aban- 
don the enterpise owing to the interference of the bu- 
reau at Albany with their contracts and their labor. 
Wherever a farmer had a drove of hogs, as soon as the 
negroes were armed, no more hogs on that farm. Re- 
port it to the bureau! If so, the fee system being in 
vogue, you were assessed all you could raise — and that 
was the "economic adjustment" which so pleased these 
New South apologists when they write history — the 

51 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

books mostly to be sold North. "Economic adjust- 
ment" ! What graft was practiced upon the white peo- 
ple! 

Bullock went to Washington, had more power given 
him, and on return he and the Legislature got on excel- 
lent terms. Bullock had triumphed. The persons who 
composed the majority of this Legislature if they had 
not been upheld by military power, they, says Henry 
Turner, might have been carted about with placards on 
their backs, as were the men George III appointed to 
the Legislature of Massachusetts. 

This Legislature followed the "economic adjustment" 
practiced by the Freedmen's Bureaus. Commencing 
with 1855 and ending in 1862, there was expended for 
pay of members and officers for all of Georgia's Legis- 
latures $866,385. During the two years under Bullock 
there was expended for members and officers $979,000. 
This one Legislature cost $112,669 more than the Leg- 
islatures of the eight years previous in the single matter 
of its own expenses. The clerk hire for the Legislature 
before the war did not average $10,000 per annum. 
That item alone reached $125,000 in the Bullock Legis- 
lature. There was one clerk for every two Legislators ! 
Henry Turner closes his articles on Reconstruction of 
Georgia in these words: 

"And it may be truthfully said that Reconstruc- 
tion accomplished not one useful result, and left 
behind it not one pleasant recollection." 
Dan W. Voorhees in his "Plunder of Eleven States" 
says "Pirates have been known to land upon beautiful 
islands of the sea, and, with cutlass, dirk and pistol, 
proclaim a government, pillage and murder their inhab- 
itant, and from the shelter of their harbors sally forth 
on all unarmed commerce that the winds and the waves 
brought near them. Bandits have been known to rule 
over the secluded wilds and fastness of mountain 
ranges, and with bloody hands extort enormous ran- 
soms from their prisoners, but the pirate and the bandit 
have not been worse or blacker in their spheres than 
the Republican Legislature (Bullock's) and the Repub- 
lican Governor, of whom I am speaking, v/ere in theirs." 

THADDEUS STEVENS 

Thad Stevens' great cry was "equality." No distinc- 

52 



THADDEUS STEVENS 

tion, political or social, between the races. James M. 
Scovil, a close friend of Stevens, in his biography relates 
Thad Stevens' account of how the Reconstruction meas- 
ures were put through Congress. 

John Sherman, the Senator from Ohio, and a brother 
of Gen. Sherman, was for Lincoln's plan of restoration, 
and his bill passed the Senate, and should have passed 
the House. Then there would have been no Reconstruc- 
tion and plunder of the eleven Southern States. 

Scovil in his biograph quotes Stevens: "Mr. Stevens 
came to me and said: "The John Sherman bill, as it is 
called, had passed the Senate after many days and 
nights of stubborn contest. Charles Sumner (Senator) 
came to consult me about defeating the Sherman bill 
when it came to the House. It was late in the winter 
of 1866. I wanted the bill beaten as badly as Sumner. 
I promised to beat it. The Senate was for it, hailing it 
as a measure of restoration and pacification. Senti- 
ment was for the bill, and to defeat it in the House was 
a job. But I went to Sawyer, of Wisconsin, a rich lum- 
berman and skilled in all the wiles of legislation, md 
we began to filibuster with Democrats, promising them 
SOMETHING BETTER than the Sherman bill after the 
4th of March. They took the bait like so many gud- 
geons, and with the Sumner contingent in the House, 
we defeated John Sherman's measure. "Sunset" Cox, 
a young and brilliant Democrat, accepted my promise 
in all good faith. I was playing for time. Then when 
recess came we went before the people, which were 
more radical than Congress. Our best speakers were 
put on the stump. And when Congress met I was safe. 
'The negro was given the ballot.' " 

Dan W. Voorhees tells that in this recess Thad Stev- 
ens, as chairman of the Reconstruction committee, in- 
structed the Freedmen's bureaus in the South to get up 
"outrages" between whites and blacks, and put the 
"outrage mill' at full work, get up riots and disturb- 
ances and report them to him, and have negroes to 
march from village to village, the more disorder the 
better. The passage of the Reconstruction measures 
depended on these reports. It was necessary to make 
Congress believe the military was necessary to protect 
the freedmen. 

53 



RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD IN GEORGIA 

So when Congress convened Stevens had such reports 
as he wanted in great abundance. He showed them to 
Gen. Grant, who, being deceived, deserted the Sherman 
bill and espoused Stevens' plan. The middle West had 
been with Dan W. Voorhees, who had great influence 
with them. But when Stevens unbundled his "reports," 
signed by army officers, Voorhees could no longer stem 
the tide. The die was cast. The South must suffer Re- 
construction. These "reports" demanded military com- 
manders and ballot for the negroes. "My bill for divis- 
ion of the South will insure the permanent acendancy 
of the Republican party in the South," said Stevens. 

"Do you avow the party purposes?" asked Voorhees. 

"Yes, I do. If negro suffrage is excluded then eveiy 
Southern State is sure to send a rebel electoral vote. 
That we will not have." 

These "reports" which Stevens had manufactered for 
his purposes were a cruel deception upon his own party. 
They deceived Gen. Grant, who was for the Sherman 
bill. Old Thad, the "Stoneman" of the play, would pat 
his club foot and boast of how he deceived his own party 
and "chuckled" over it with as much satisfaction as did 
his negro Lynch when he had the noble Camerons in 
his power, or as fiendishly as did his mulatto wench 
chuckle when the negro Legislature passed the law for 
intermarriages. She expected old Thad to solemnize 
their "romance" at the altar of Hymen. But he did not. 

The only fiction in the "Birth of a Nation" is where 
Dixon represented old Thad (Stoneman) as married 
and having two children. This was "poetic license," so 
to speak, to humanize Thad Stevens so he could be a 
possible figure in fiction. To have him come South and 
inaugurate his measures in person and to have two chil- 
dren whose conduct stamped his course as unnatural 
and against the promptings of the white race, was a 
conception that better illustrated the purpose of the 
author — to show that all the plans of Stevens to put the 
black South on top over the white South, was the dream 
of an abolition fanatic and against nature. 

Stevens had no white family to interest him while at 
home, so he beguiled himself with sport, Scovil says: 
"Stevens believed that the king must be amused, and 
that he was king. His favorite amusement was to spend 

54 



THADDEUS STEVENS 

his evenings at Hall & Pemberton's faro bank on Penn- 
slyvania avenue, though he was never a heavy player." 

It is strange how dissolute politicians come to have so 
much influence. Stevens was an able man and knew 
how to control men. But his reign was that of the dem- 
agogue. He certainly pressed upon the brow of the 
South a crown of thorns. No Southern home escaped 
the crucifixion and wrongs of Reconstruction. The sec- 
ond invasion of the South was far more disastrous than 
the first. It is a foul blot on the national honor. And 
yet these same ill-used Southern people are now the 
nation's best asset. No hyphenated citizens here. Even 
Mr. Bryan cannot beguile them into disloyalty. 

Perhaps for a clearer conception of the part Stevens 
played, now boss of Congress, it should be added that 
the Reconstruction acts were passed in 1867 by which 
every State in the South was subordinated to military 
government. 

Prior to this, in March, 1866, Congress passed con- 
current resolutions that no Senator or Representative 
should be admitted to Congress from any of the eleven 
States until Congress should declare such States entitled 
to recognition. Thad Stevens here killed Lincoln's plan. 

Then on July 16, 1866, Congress passed an act ex- 
tending the provisions of the Freedmen's bureau. No 
limit to the number of agents to be employed. Military 
jurisdiction was conferred on every bureau, and every 
county in Georgia had its bureau with its military court. 

Collier's Weekly years ago said : "Thad Stevens was 
a fanatic, a misanthrope, embittered by physical defor- 
mity, a born revolutionist, endowed with the brazen au- 
dacity of the devil, and he became in a moment the un- 
scrupulous master of a crazed nation. Twenty-eight 
years before this crisis he had become infatuated with 
his mulatto woman whom he had separated from her 
husband. This yellow vampire fattened on him during 
his public career, amassed a fortune in real estate in 
Washington, wrecked his great ambition to be Presi- 
dent, and made him a social pariah." 

Strange is the truth of history. 



55 



KUKLUX KLAN 

(From Athens Banner.) 

The Kuklux Klan was a great law and order league 
of mounted night cavalrymen called into action by the 
intolerable condition of a reign of terror under the ne- 
gro rule in the South at the close of the War between 
the States. 

"Its rise was due to the mind of no leader. It was an 
accident. A group of boys at Pulaski, Tenn., organized 
it first as a local fraternity. They found a name in the 
Greek word 'Kuklos', a band or circle, and to this they 
added clan, and then split the germ word into two 
weird monosyllables, spelling the clan with a K 
to heighten the appeal to the superstitious, and of the 
awe-inspiring Kuklux Klan. 

"In 1867 a secret convention of peace loving, God 
fearing, patriotic Southerners met in Nashville and or- 
ganized this society into 'The Invisible Empire', adopted 
a ritual and ajourned. 

"Mr. Laps D. McCord, of Tennessee, was the printer 
in the office of the Pulaski Citizen who set the type, 
printed and stitched the complete edition of the ritual 
of the order. He never knew until years after the au- 
thor of the manuscript or from whose hands he received 
it. He got one day an anonymous letter telling him to 
remove the middle brick in the space beneath a certain 
window in his printing office. He did so and found that 
the brick in the center of the wall had been taken out 
and in its place lay a roll of manuscript containing the 
ritual of the 'Invisible Empire.' It was merely marked 
with three stars. He was instructed to print and bind 
in the night and on a certain date between the hours of 
1 and 2 a. m., to place the bundle outside the door. He 
did as ordered and unseen hands bore them away in 
the darkness. 

"The only two copies of this ritual now known to ex- 
ist are to be found in the archives of the state of Ten- 
nessee. Its author it Gen. George W. Gordon, of Mem- 
phis. 

During the Reconstruction Days in the South it be- 
came an absolute necessity to have an organization such 
as the Kuklux Klan to protect Southern firesides. Con- 
federate soldiers organized it and they were men of the 

56 



KUKLUX KLAN 

best blood in the land. When they returned to their 
desolated homes after the surrender they met slave con- 
fiscation and reconstruction under negro rule. Sumbit 
to it? No ! They were forced to keep the freed negro 
in subjection until he could be from under the influences 
of the scalawags and carpetbaggers. At first there was 
only the thought of social pleasure and recreation in 
the order, but discovering that their queer costumes 
and their weird and mysterious doings were affecting 
the minds of ignorant and vicious and unprincipled 
negroes and whites they turned their efforts into a means 
of defense as was needed in the South. At this time 
Confederate soldiers were denied the right of the bal- 
lot — negroes held the offices — they were the legislators 
and magistrates. White men were at the mercy of ne- 
gro rulers. The very foundation of southern civilization 
was threatened, and it was the genius and the great- 
ness of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who devised this 
means of righting matters. He was the Grand Wizard 
of the Invisible Empire, assisted by the Grand Dragon, 
the Grand Titan, the Grand Giant, the Grand Cyclops, 
and other Genii. There were Hydras, Furies, Goblins, 
Night Hawks, and all sorts of Ghouls. They dressed in 
pure white, rode white horses whose feet were padded. 
They could, by some sort of apparatus, rise in the sad- 
dle to the height of sixteen feet or more. They could, 
by some sort of arrangement, drink seven buckets of 
water without stopping and calmly remark : "I have 
had no water since I was killed at the Battle of Manas- 
sa s." The poor frightened negro, made to dip up the 
water from the stream in which the horseman was 
standing, would at this run in terror from what he sup- 
posed was a real ghost. 

If white or black in any comunity were giving any 
trouble he v^'ould find written on his door in letters of 
blood the mysterious K. K. K., which all knew meant 
leave the country at once or death will follow. If they 
left all was well, if they did not woe betid ethem. 

Many, many dreadful things were done by fake Ku- 
klux Klan, and their work was branded as oftentimes 
criminal and cruel, but the real work of the real organ- 
ization were necessities that the times demanded, and 
it should not be condemned. 

57 



CONCLUSION. 

Here the record ends, amid the gloom and desolation 
of defeat — a gloom that was to be followed ere long by 
the still blacker darkness of Reconstruction. Yet, I 
would not have the reader draw from its pages a mes- 
sage of despair, but of hope and courage under diffi- 
culties; for disaster cheerfully borne and honorably 
overcome, is not a tragedy, but a triumph. And this, 
the most glorious of all conquests, belongs to the South. 
Never in all history, has any people recovered itself so 
completely from calamity so overwhelming. By the 
abolition of slavery alone four thousand millions worth 
of property were wiped out of existence. As many mil- 
lions more went up in smoke and ruin of war; while to 
count in money the cost of the precious lives that were 
sacrificed, would be, I will not say an impossibility, but 
a desecration. 

I do not recall these things in a spirit of bitterness or 
repining, but with a feeling of just pride that I belong 
to a race which has shown itself capable of rising supe- 
rior to such conditions. We, on this side of the line, 
have long since forgiven the war and its inevitable 
hardships. We challenge the fight, and if we got more 
of it in the end than we liked, there was nothing for it 
but to stand up like men and take our medicine without 
whimpering. It was the hand that struck us after we 
were down that bore harvest; yet even its iron weight 
was not enough to break the spirit of a people in whom 
the Anglo-Saxon blood of our fathers still flows uncon- 
taminated ; and when the insatiable crew of the carpet- 
baggers fell upon us to devour the last meager rem- 
nants left us by the spoliation of war, they were met by 
the ghostly bands of "The Invisible Empire," who 
through secret vigilance and masterful strategy saved 
the civilization they were forbidden to defend by open 
force. 

To conquer fate is a greater victory than to conquer 
in battle, and to conquer under such handicaps as were 
imposed on the South is more than a victory ; it is a tri- 
umph. Forced against our will, and against the sim- 
plest biological and ethnological laws, into an unnatural 
political marriage that has brought forth as its mon- 
strous ofl'spring a race problem in comparison with 
which the Cretan Minotaur was a suckling calf; robbed 



CONCLUSION 

of the last pitiful resource the destitution of war had 
left us, by a prohibitory tax on cotton, our sole com- 
mercial product; discriminated against for half a cen- 
tury by a predatory tariff that mulcts us at eevi-y turn, 
from the cradle to the grave; giving millions out of our 
poverty to educate the negro, and contributing millions 
more to reward the patriotism of our conquerers, whose 
imperishable multitudes as revealed by the pension 
rolls, make the four-year resistance of our thin gray 
bands one of the miracles of history ; yet, in spite of all 
this, and in spite of the fact that the path of our prog- 
press has been a thorny one, marked by many an un- 
written tragedy of those who went down in the strug- 
gle, to old, or too deeply rooted in the past to adapt 
themselves to new conditions, we have, as a people, 
come up out of the depths stronger and wiser for our 
battle with adversity, and the land we love has lifted 
herself from the Valley of Humiliation to a pinnacle of 
prosperity that is the wonder of more favored sections. 
And so, after all, our tale of disaster is but the pre- 
lude to a triumph in which one may justly glory with- 
out being accused of vainglory. It is good to feel that 
you belong to a people that you have a right to be 
proud of; it is good to feel coursing in your veins the 
blood of a race that has left its impress on the civiliza- 
tion of the world wherever the Anglo-Saxon has set his 
foot. And to us, who bore the storm and stress and the 
tragedy of those dark days, it is good to remember that 
if the sun which set in blood and ashes over the hills of 
Appomattox has risen again in splendor on the smiling 
prospect of a New South, it is because the foundations 
of its success were laid in the courage and steadfast- 
ness and hopefulness of a generation who in the dark- 
est days of disaster, did not despair of their country. 



&9 



1916 

BULLOCH TIMES 

Statesboro, Ga. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

I mill pim Hill nil 



llllllilllllllllllWli|lll^lll'*>l>'l<l'ni)'ii"ii'<'i"' 
014 418 811 1 # 



